Home animation apparatus and methods

ABSTRACT

Computerized appliances may be operated by users remotely. A learning controller apparatus may be operated to determine association between a user indication and an action by the appliance. The user indications, e.g., gestures, posture changes, audio signals may trigger an event associated with the controller. The event may be linked to a plurality of instructions configured to communicate a command to the appliance. The learning apparatus may receive sensory input conveying information about robot&#39;s state and environment (context). The sensory input may be used to determine the user indications. During operation, upon determine the indication using sensory input, the controller may cause execution of the respective instructions in order to trigger action by the appliance. Device animation methodology may enable users to operate computerized appliances using gestures, voice commands, posture changes, and/or other customized control elements.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is related to co-pending and/or co-owned U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/489,242 entitled “APPARATUS AND METHODS FORREMOTELY CONTROLLING ROBOTIC DEVICES”, filed contemporaneously herewithon Sep. 17, 2014; Ser. No. 14/489,368 entitled “APPARATUS AND METHODSFOR CONTEXT DETERMINATION USING REAL TIME SENSOR DATA”, filedcontemporaneously herewith on Sep. 17, 2014; Ser. No. 14/489,373entitled “APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR REMOVAL OF LEARNED BEHAVIORS INROBOTS”, filed contemporaneously herewith on Sep. 17, 2014, Ser. No.14/244,888 entitled “LEARNING APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR CONTROL OFROBOTIC DEVICES VIA SPOOFING”, filed Apr. 3, 2014, Ser. No. 14/244,892entitled “SPOOFING REMOTE CONTROL APPARATUS AND METHODS”, filed Apr. 3,2014, Ser. No. 14/244,890 entitled “APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR REMOTELYCONTROLLING ROBOTIC DEVICES”, filed Apr. 3, 2014, Ser. No. 14/208,709entitled “TRAINABLE MODULAR ROBOTIC APPARATUS AND METHODS”, filed Mar.13, 2014, Ser. No. 13/953,595 entitled “APPARATUS AND METHODS FORCONTROLLING OF ROBOTIC DEVICES”, filed Jul. 29, 2013, Ser. No.13/918,338 entitled “ROBOTIC TRAINING APPARATUS AND METHODS”, filed Jun.14, 2013, Ser. No. 13/918,298 entitled “HIERARCHICAL ROBOTIC CONTROLLERAPPARATUS AND METHODS”, filed Jun. 14, 2013, Ser. No. 13/907,734entitled “ADAPTIVE ROBOTIC INTERFACE APPARATUS AND METHODS”, filed May31, 2013, Ser. No. 13/842,530 entitled “ADAPTIVE PREDICTOR APPARATUS ANDMETHODS”, filed Mar. 15, 2013, Ser. No. 13/842,562 entitled “ADAPTIVEPREDICTOR APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR ROBOTIC CONTROL”, filed Mar. 15,2013, Ser. No. 13/842,616 entitled “ROBOTIC APPARATUS AND METHODS FORDEVELOPING A HIERARCHY OF MOTOR PRIMITIVES”, filed Mar. 15, 2013, Ser.No. 13/842,647 entitled “MULTICHANNEL ROBOTIC CONTROLLER APPARATUS ANDMETHODS”, filed Mar. 15, 2013, Ser. No. 13/842,583 entitled “APPARATUSAND METHODS FOR TRAINING OF ROBOTIC DEVICES”, filed Mar. 15, 2013, Ser.No. 13/918,620 entitled “PREDICTIVE ROBOTIC CONTROLLER APPARATUS ANDMETHODS”, filed Jun. 14, 2013, and Ser. No. 13/465,918 entitled “SPIKINGNEURAL NETWORK OBJECT RECOGNITION APPARATUS AND METHODS”, filed May 7,2012, each of the foregoing being incorporated herein by reference inits entirety.

COPYRIGHT

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialthat is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever.

BACKGROUND

Technological Field

The present disclosure relates to adaptive control and training ofcomputerized devices.

Background

Computerized devices may be used in a variety of home automationapplications such as autonomous vacuum cleaners, multifunction remotecontrollers, entertainment appliances, lighting systems and/or otherappliances. Some existing devices (e.g., Roomba®) may be pre-programmedat a factory in order to perform desired functionality. Some existingdevices (e.g., Harmony Remote®) may be programmed by a user in order toperform desired functionality. Some home automation devices (e.g.,Savant audio/video distribution and/or lighting appliances) mayinterface with a portable device (e.g., a tablet, smartphone) running aspecific application (App) in order to enable a user to operate theappliance. However, operation of robotic devices by such controllers maybe characterized by a constrained form of the user interface, e.g., arequirement to carry around e.g., an iPhone, in order to be able to turnon/off an audiovisual equipment. Some such existing solutions mayrequire some form of “programming” (e.g., button assignment, modelselection) at minimum, arranging buttons on one or more page views of asmartphone app, and/or other operation.

SUMMARY

One aspect of the disclosure relates to a robotic system. The system maycomprise a first robotic device. The system may comprise a remotecontroller configured to provide a first wireless transmission conveyinga first control instruction from a user to the first robotic device. Thefirst control instruction may be configured to cause the first roboticdevice to execute a first action. The system may comprise a learningcontroller apparatus configured to, during first time interval: receivethe first wireless transmission; determine a first context associatedwith execution of the first action; and determine an association betweendata related to the first control instruction and the first context.During a second time interval, subsequent to the first time interval,the learning controller apparatus may be configured to: determineanother version of the first context related to execution of the firstaction; and provide, in lieu of the first control instruction, a firstremote transmission conveying data related to the first controlinstruction, the data related to the first control instruction beingconfigured to cause the first robotic device to execute the firstaction.

A home animation apparatus is disclosed. In one embodiment, the homeanimation apparatus includes: a sensor interface configured to receiveone or more sensor inputs; a user interface configured to receive one ormore user indications; a processing component in communication with thesensor interface and the user interface. In one exemplary embodiment,the processing component is configured to: determine an action by a userof the home animation apparatus based on analysis of the one or moresensor inputs; and based on an occurrence of the one or more userindications being provided by the user contemporaneous with the useraction, assign an action tag, the action tag configured to enableprovision of a control instruction to a home appliance device when asubsequent user action is detected.

In one variant, the user interface comprises a touch activatedinterface; and the one or more user indications comprise a button touchof the touch activated interface by the user.

In another variant, the user interface comprises pressure wave sensingcomponent; and the one or more user indications comprise an arbitraryvoice phrase.

In still another variant, the sensor comprises a camera; the one or moresensor inputs comprise a plurality of images provided by the camera; andthe user action comprises a gesture that is determined by the processorbased on analysis of at least one image of the plurality of images.

In yet other implementations, the home animation apparatus includes adata interface to a controller apparatus in data communication with thehome appliance device; the controller apparatus configured to, based onreceipt of the action tag execute a program code, the program codeexecution configured to cause the provision of the control instructionto the appliance device.

In some incarnations, the program code is configured based on a userinput via a computerized input interface. For instance, the controlinstruction may be configured to cause the home appliance device toexecute an action; and the subsequent detection of the user action maybe configured to cause an automatic provision of the action tag to thecontroller apparatus via the data interface.

A learning audiovisual apparatus is disclosed. In one embodiment, thelearning audiovisual apparatus includes: a data interface componentconfigured to obtain content from a content source; a screen componentconfigured to present the content to a first user; a video camerainterface configured to obtain video information related to a premisesof the learning audiovisual apparatus, where the video informationcharacterizes a first position of first user and a second position of asecond user with respect to the screen component; and a processorcomponent. In one exemplary embodiment, the processor is configured toanalyze the video information; determine the first and the secondposition; detect an obstruction of the screen when the second userphysically obstructs at least a portion of a view of the screencomponent of the first user; and when the obstruction is detected,produce a pause instruction configured to pause the presentation of thecontent.

In one variant, the learning audiovisual apparatus includes a televisiondevice comprising the screen component, the television device disposedin an enclosure separate from the content source; wherein, the pauseinstruction is communicated to the content source via a remote datalink. In one such variant, the remote data link comprises a radiofrequency link; and the pause instruction is communicated via a radiofrequency transmission. In another such variant, the content sourcecomprises a digital media player device disposed in an enclosureseparated from the television device; and the remote data link comprisesa wired link.

In another variant, the learning audiovisual apparatus comprises atelevision device, comprising a processor component and an enclosure;the content source comprises a digital media player component disposedwithin the enclosure and in data communication with the processorcomponent via a bus; and the pause instruction is configured to becommunicated to the media player device via the bus.

In still another variant, the learning audiovisual apparatus includes acomputerized controller component configured to operate a learningprocess characterized by a training phase; wherein: during the trainingphase, the learning process is operable to (i) detect an indicationprovided by the user; and (ii) when the obstruction is detected, storean association between the indication and the detection of theobstruction. In one such example, the learning process is characterizedby an operational phase; and during the operational phase, the learningprocess is configured to produce a first information related to theindication based on the association and the detection of the obstructionin absence of the indication. In one exemplary case, a computerizedcontroller component comprises a storage component configured to store aplurality of instructions that correspond to the first informationrelated to the indication; and the indication is configured to causeexecution of the plurality of instructions, the execution of theinstructions configured to effectuate transmission of the pauseinstruction.

In another variant, the indication comprises a pause command for theaudiovisual apparatus provided via a user remote device. In one suchcase, the pause command is configured for transmission on one or moreradio signal pulses; and the detection of the indication comprisesdetection of the one or more radio signal pulses by the computerizedcontroller. In one such case, the transmission is based on at least oneof a frequency signal carrier or infrared signal carrier.

A method of operating a home automation controller of a computerizedappliance is disclosed. In one embodiment the method includes:interfacing to a computerized appliance; analyzing one or more sensorinputs; determining an action of a user based on the analysis of the oneor more sensor inputs; and based an existing association between theaction and a command, automatically providing the command to a fixture.

In one variant, the action comprises opening of a book by the user; andthe command is configured to turn on the fixture. In one such case, thefixture comprises a light fixture disposed remote from the homeautomation controller. In another case, the light fixture is configuredto be controlled remotely via one or more signal carrier transmissions;and the interfacing is performed via a wireless interface configured toproduce the one or more signal carrier transmissions. In one exemplaryimplementation, the one or more sensor inputs comprise a sequence ofimages provided by a camera; and analyzing the one or more sensor inputscomprises a comparison operation configured based on two images of theseries of images.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage apparatus is disclosed. Inone embodiment, the non-transitory computer-readable storage apparatusincludes a plurality of instructions configured to, when executed by aprocessor apparatus, cause a computerized home animation apparatus to:analyze a plurality of sensory inputs; determine a user action, thedetermination of the user action being associated with the analysis ofthe plurality of sensory inputs; associate a context with the determineduser action; assign a composite action tag based on an existingcorrelation between the context associated with the user action and aseparate user command, the assigned composite action tag beingconfigured to provide a control instruction; and when a subsequent useraction associated with the context is detected without the separate usercommand, automatically provide the control instruction to a homeappliance via the assigned composite action tag; wherein the existingcorrelation between the user action and the separate user command hasbeen created as a result of a plurality of training sessions, theplurality of training sessions including: a first training sessionincluding an association between (i) a first determination of the useraction and (ii) a first detection of the separate user command; and asecond training session including an association between (i) a seconddetermination of the user action and (ii) a second detection of theseparate user command.

These and other objects, features, and characteristics of the presentdisclosure, as well as the methods of operation and functions of therelated elements of structure and the combination of parts and economiesof manufacture, will become more apparent upon consideration of thefollowing description and the appended claims with reference to theaccompanying drawings, all of which form a part of this specification,wherein like reference numerals designate corresponding parts in thevarious figures. It is to be expressly understood, however, that thedrawings are for the purpose of illustration and description only andare not intended as a definition of the limits of the disclosure. Asused in the specification and in the claims, the singular form of “a”,“an”, and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearlydictates otherwise.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a block diagram illustrating a computerized apparatusconfigured for learning associations between sensory context and controlcommands for an appliance, according to one or more implementations.

FIG. 1B is a functional block diagram illustrating operation of thelearning apparatus of FIG. 1A, according to one or more implementations.

FIG. 2A is a functional block diagram illustrating a system comprising acontroller apparatus in data communication with a computerized applianceand remote control device, according to one or more implementations.

FIG. 2B is a functional block diagram illustrating the learningcontroller apparatus of FIG. 2A, according to one or moreimplementations.

FIG. 3A is a functional block diagram depicting a computerized apparatusconfigured to produce an event based on a sensory context, according toone or more implementations.

FIG. 3B is a graphical illustration depicting use of trainedcomputerized apparatus of FIG. 3A to operate an appliance based on oneor more events and sensory context, according to one or moreimplementations.

FIG. 3C is a functional block diagram illustrating a system for traininga learning controller to operate an appliance using a user interfacedevice based on associating one or more events and sensory context,according to one or more implementations.

FIG. 3D is a functional block diagram illustrating use of the trainedlearning controller of FIG. 3C for operating an appliance based on oneor more events associated with sensory context, according to one or moreimplementations.

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram illustrating a computerized systemconfigured to implement the learning controller apparatus of the presentdisclosure using a remote computing entity, in accordance with oneimplementation.

FIG. 5A is a block diagram illustrating a user interface configured toenable linking of an event associated with a context to an action by anappliance device, in accordance with one or more implementations.

FIG. 5B is a block diagram illustrating a user interface configured toenable linking of an event associated with a context to an action bymultiple appliance devices, in accordance with one or moreimplementations.

FIGS. 6A-6B is a graphical illustration depicting operation of acomputerized furniture apparatus by a learning system usingcontext-action associations, according to one or more implementations.

FIGS. 7A-7B illustrate operation of a computerized apparatus by alearning system using context-action associations, according to one ormore implementations.

FIGS. 8A-8B illustrate operation of a computerized light fixture by alearning system configured to determine sensory context and usingcontext-action associations, according to one or more implementations.

FIG. 9 is a functional block diagram illustrating a system comprising alearning controller configured to automate operation of homeentertainment appliance (e.g., a TV), according to one or moreimplementations.

FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram detailing components of a learningcontrol apparatus, in accordance with one implementation.

FIG. 11A is a logical flow diagram illustrating a method of determiningan association between a control instruction for an appliance apparatusand sensory context, in accordance with one or more implementations.

FIG. 11B is a logical flow diagram illustrating a method ofdetermining/eliminating suppressing an association between a controlinstruction for an appliance and sensory context, in accordance with oneor more implementations.

FIG. 12A is a logical flow diagram illustrating a method of assigning atag to a context determined in sensory input, in accordance with one ormore implementations.

FIG. 12B is a logical flow diagram illustrating assigning a set ofmachine instructions for a given tag determined by method of FIG. 12Afor operating an appliance apparatus, in accordance with one or moreimplementations.

FIG. 12C a logical flow diagram illustrating operating the applianceapparatus using the tag and the set of machine instructions, inaccordance with one or more implementations.

FIG. 13 is a logical flow diagram illustrating provision of controlinstructions to an appliance device by a learning controller apparatususing mixed carrier operation, in accordance with one or moreimplementations.

FIG. 14 is a logical flow diagram illustrating provision of controlinstructions to an appliance device by a learning controller based on anaction by a user, in accordance with one or more implementations.

FIG. 15 is a logical flow diagram illustrating a method of determiningcontext in sensory input a learning apparatus, in accordance with one ormore implementations.

FIG. 16 is a computer program listing illustrating exemplary controlcommand codes for a plurality of selected remotely controlled devices,according to one or more implementations.

FIGS. 17A-17D presents data illustrating context detection using animage sequence in accordance with one or more implementations.

All Figures disclosed herein are © Copyright 2014 Brain Corporation. Allrights reserved.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Implementations of the present technology will now be described indetail with reference to the drawings, which are provided asillustrative examples so as to enable those skilled in the art topractice the technology. Notably, the figures and examples below are notmeant to limit the scope of the present disclosure to a singleimplementation, but other implementations are possible by way ofinterchange of or combination with some or all of the described orillustrated elements. Wherever convenient, the same reference numberswill be used throughout the drawings to refer to same or like parts.

Where certain elements of these implementations can be partially orfully implemented using known components, only those portions of suchknown components that are necessary for an understanding of the presenttechnology will be described, and detailed descriptions of otherportions of such known components will be omitted so as not to obscurethe disclosure.

In the present specification, an implementation showing a singularcomponent should not be considered limiting; rather, the disclosure isintended to encompass other implementations including a plurality of thesame component, and vice-versa, unless explicitly stated otherwiseherein.

Further, the present disclosure encompasses present and future knownequivalents to the components referred to herein by way of illustration.

As used herein, the term “bus” is meant generally to denote all types ofinterconnection or communication architecture that is used to access thesynaptic and neuron memory. The “bus” may be optical, wireless,infrared, and/or another type of communication medium. The exacttopology of the bus could be for example standard “bus”, hierarchicalbus, network-on-chip, address-event-representation (AER) connection,and/or other type of communication topology used for accessing, e.g.,different memories in pulse-based system.

As used herein, the terms “computer”, “computing device”, and“computerized device” may include one or more of personal computers(PCs) and/or minicomputers (e.g., desktop, laptop, and/or other PCs),mainframe computers, workstations, servers, personal digital assistants(PDAs), handheld computers, embedded computers, programmable logicdevices, personal communicators, tablet computers, portable navigationaids, J2ME equipped devices, cellular telephones, smart phones, personalintegrated communication and/or entertainment devices, and/or any otherdevice capable of executing a set of instructions and processing anincoming data signal.

As used herein, the term “computer program” or “software” may includeany sequence of human and/or machine cognizable steps which perform afunction. Such program may be rendered in a programming language and/orenvironment including one or more of C/C++, C#, Fortran, COBOL, MATLAB™,PASCAL, Python, assembly language, markup languages (e.g., HTML, SGML,XML, VoXML), object-oriented environments (e.g., Common Object RequestBroker Architecture (CORBA)), Java™ (e.g., J2ME, Java Beans), BinaryRuntime Environment (e.g., BREW), and/or other programming languagesand/or environments.

As used herein, the term “memory” may include an integrated circuitand/or other storage device adapted for storing digital data. By way ofnon-limiting example, memory may include one or more of ROM, PROM,EEPROM, DRAM, Mobile DRAM, SDRAM, DDR/2 SDRAM, EDO/FPMS, RLDRAM, SRAM,“flash” memory (e.g., NAND/NOR), memristor memory, PSRAM, and/or othertypes of memory.

As used herein, the terms “integrated circuit”, “chip”, and “IC” aremeant to refer to an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterneddiffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate ofsemiconductor material. By way of non-limiting example, integratedcircuits may include field programmable gate arrays (e.g., FPGAs), aprogrammable logic device (PLD), reconfigurable computer fabrics (RCFs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), and/or other types ofintegrated circuits.

As used herein, the terms “microprocessor” and “digital processor” aremeant generally to include digital processing devices. By way ofnon-limiting example, digital processing devices may include one or moreof digital signal processors (DSPs), reduced instruction set computers(RISC), general-purpose (CISC) processors, microprocessors, gate arrays(e.g., field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs)), PLDs, reconfigurablecomputer fabrics (RCFs), array processors, secure microprocessors,application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), and/or other digitalprocessing devices. Such digital processors may be contained on a singleunitary IC die, or distributed across multiple components.

As used herein, the term “network interface” refers to any signal, data,and/or software interface with a component, network, and/or process. Byway of non-limiting example, a network interface may include one or moreof FireWire (e.g., FW400, FW800, etc.), USB USB2), Ethernet (e.g.,10/100, 10/100/1000 (Gigabit Ethernet), 10-Gig-E, etc.), MoCA, CoaxsysTVnet™), radio frequency tuner (e.g., in-band or OOB, cable modem,etc.), Wi-Fi (802.11), WiMAX (802.16), PAN (e.g., 802.15), cellular(e.g., 3G, LTE/LTE-A/TD-LTE, GSM, etc.), IrDA families, and/or othernetwork interfaces.

As used herein, the term “Wi-Fi” includes one or more of IEEE-Std.802.11, variants of IEEE-Std. 802.11, standards related to IEEE-Std.802.11 (e.g., 802.11a/b/g/n/s/v), and/or other wireless standards.

As used herein, the term “wireless” means any wireless signal, data,communication, and/or other wireless interface. By way of non-limitingexample, a wireless interface may include one or more of Wi-Fi,Bluetooth, 3G (3GPP/3GPP2), HSDPA/HSUPA, TDMA, CDMA (e.g., IS-95A,WCDMA, etc.), FHSS, DSSS, GSM, PAN/802.15. WiMAX (802.16), 802.20,narrowband/FDMA, OFDM, PCS/DCS, LTE/LTE-A/TD-LTE, analog cellular, CDPD,satellite systems, millimeter wave or microwave systems, acoustic,infrared (i.e., IrDA), and/or other wireless interfaces.

FIG. 1A illustrates a computerized apparatus configured for learningassociations between sensory context and control commands for a roboticdevice (e.g., a computerized appliance), according to one or moreimplementations. As used herein the terms robotic device, computerizedappliance and/or appliance device may be used to describe an electricaland/or electromechanical apparatus comprising a processing apparatus,non-transitory computer readable media, and/or computerized interfaceconfigured to enable the apparatus to perform a household and/or officefunction/task autonomously (such as via one or more instructions whichare locally stored with the processing apparatus) and/or based on one ormore remote instructions received via a remote interface (e.g., anetwork interface, etc.). In some implementations, the computerizedapparatus 100 of FIG. 1A may comprise a specialized computerizedapparatus (e.g., bStem™ integrated platform, described in,http://www.braincorporation.com/specs/BStem_SpecSheet_Rev_Nov11_2013.pdf,the foregoing being incorporated herein by reference in its entirety,and/or the apparatus 1000 shown and described with respect to FIG. 10below) configured to operate a learning process. In one or moreimplementations, the learning process operation may be effectuated by aBrainOS software platform that may include software configured toinstantiate modules and/or robotic brain images, and containing learningalgorithms not limited to artificial neural networks and other machinelearning algorithms. The BrainOS software platform may providefunctionality for a software module that may be typical of an operatingsystem including but not limited to: saving, loading, executing,duplicating, restoring, reverting, check pointing, analyzing, debugging,and uploading/downloading operations to/from remote cloud storage. Insome implementations, the BrainOS modules or robotic brain images may beused with the intent to control a robotic device and be broadlyconstrued to include actuators and switches as may be present in a homeautomation system. In one or more implementations, the computerizedapparatus 100 may comprise a general use computerized apparatus (e.g., atablet, a smartphone, a computer, and/or other computerized device)configured to operate the BrainOS library. In one or moreimplementations, the apparatus 100 may comprise a user interface deviceto a remote server (e.g., a browser terminal interfacing to a cloudcomputing service (e.g., Amazon Web Service™, Rackspace, IBM, and/orother services).

The apparatus 100 may comprise an interface to a sensor componentconfigured to provide sensory input 108 to the learning process. In someimplementations, the sensor component of the may comprise a camera, amicrophone, a radio wave sensor, an ultrasonic sensor, and/or othersensor capable of providing information related environment of theappliance device. The sensor information may be used for determiningcontext associated with the environment using any applicablemethodologies including these described below with respect to FIG. 15

In one or more implementations, such as object and/or gesturerecognition, the sensory input 108 may comprise a stream of pixel valuesassociated with one or more digital images. In one or moreimplementations of e.g., video, radar, sonography, x-ray, magneticresonance imaging, and/or other types of sensing, the input may compriseelectromagnetic waves (e.g., visible light, infrared (IR), ultraviolet(UV), and/or other types of electromagnetic waves) entering an imagingsensor array. In some implementations, the imaging sensor array maycomprise one or more of artificial retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), acharge coupled device (CCD), an active-pixel sensor (APS), and/or othersensors. The input signal may comprise a sequence of images and/or imageframes. The sequence of images and/or image frame may be received from aCCD camera via a receiver apparatus and/or downloaded from a file. Theimage may comprise a two-dimensional matrix of red green, blue (RGB)values refreshed at a 25 Hz frame rate (and/or any suitable frame rate).It will be appreciated by those skilled in the arts that the above imageparameters are merely exemplary, and many other image representations(e.g., bitmap, CMYK, HSV, HSL, grayscale, and/or other representations)and/or frame rates are equally useful with the present disclosure.Pixels and/or groups of pixels associated with objects and/or featuresin the input frames may be encoded using, for example, latency encodingdescribed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/869,583, filed Aug. 26,2010 and entitled “INVARIANT PULSE LATENCY CODING SYSTEMS AND METHODS”;U.S. Pat. No. 8,315,305, issued Nov. 20, 2012, entitled “SYSTEMS ANDMETHODS FOR INVARIANT PULSE LATENCY CODING”; U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/152,084, filed Jun. 2, 2011, entitled “APPARATUS AND METHODSFOR PULSE-CODE INVARIANT OBJECT RECOGNITION”; and/or latency encodingcomprising a temporal winner take all mechanism described U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/757,607, filed Feb. 1, 2013 and entitled“TEMPORAL WINNER TAKES ALL SPIKING NEURON NETWORK SENSORY PROCESSINGAPPARATUS AND METHODS”, each of the foregoing being incorporated hereinby reference in its entirety.

In one or more implementations. object recognition and/or classificationmay be implemented using spiking neuron classifier comprisingconditionally independent subsets as described in co-owned U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/756,372 filed Jan. 31, 2013, and entitled“SPIKING NEURON CLASSIFIER APPARATUS AND METHODS USING CONDITIONALLYINDEPENDENT SUBSETS” and/or co-owned U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/756,382 filed Jan. 31, 2013, and entitled “REDUCED LATENCY SPIKINGNEURON CLASSIFIER APPARATUS AND METHODS”, each of the foregoing beingincorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

In one or more implementations, encoding may comprise adaptiveadjustment of neuron parameters, such neuron excitability described inU.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/623,820 entitled “APPARATUS ANDMETHODS FOR ENCODING OF SENSORY DATA USING ARTIFICIAL SPIKING NEURONS”,filed Sep. 20, 2012, the foregoing being incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

In some implementations, analog inputs may be converted into spikesusing, for example, kernel expansion techniques described in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/623,842 filed Sep. 20, 2012, and entitled“SPIKING NEURON NETWORK ADAPTIVE CONTROL APPARATUS AND METHODS”, theforegoing being incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. In oneor more implementations, analog and/or spiking inputs may be processedby mixed signal spiking neurons, such as U.S. patent application Ser.No. 13/313,826 entitled “APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR IMPLEMENTING LEARNINGFOR ANALOG AND SPIKING SIGNALS IN ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS”, filedDec. 7, 2011, and/or U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/761,090entitled “APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR GATING ANALOG AND SPIKING SIGNALS INARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS”, filed Feb. 6, 2013, each of the foregoingbeing incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Contemporaneous with the sensory input 108 the apparatus 100 may receivecontrol input 106 comprising one or more commands for the appliancedevice. In one or more implementations, the appliance device maycomprise an autonomous vacuum cleaner, a lighting device, anentertainment appliance, a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning(HVAC) device, a remotely operated fan, a lawnmower, a mechanized trashbin, a sprinkler system, and/or other home electrical and/orelectromechanical apparatus.

In some implementations, e.g., such as described in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/244,888, entitled “LEARNING APPARATUS ANDMETHODS FOR CONTROL OF ROBOTIC DEVICES VIA SPOOFING”, filed Apr. 3,2014, the contents of which were previously incorporated herein byreference in its entirety supra, the control input 106 may be providedby a user of the appliance using a remote control device. On one or moreimplementations, the input 106 may be provided by a computerized agent,e.g., home automation controller, a proximity sensor, a motion detectiondevice. The input 106 may be communicated using via a wired (e.g., lightswitch, serial bus, Ethernet) interface and/or wireless (e.g., usingradio frequency (RF), infrared (IR), pressure (sound), light, and/orother wave carrier transmissions).

By way of an illustration, a user may use a gesture (e.g., point a handat a remotely operated lamp) accompanied by a command issued via aremote control device. The sensory input 108 may comprise a video cameraoutput, the control input 106 may comprise one or more infrared light,RF pulses and/or other pulses associated with a button press of theremote controller.

The apparatus 100 may operate an adaptable predictor block configuredto, inter alia, determine an association between the remote controlinstructions 106 and context determined from the sensory input 108. Insome implementations, the context may comprise location of user body,head, and/or limb position, orientation, and/or configuration),presence, size, and/or location of objects (e.g., other users), and/orother information associated with environment of the user (e.g.,daylight temperature, time of day, and/or other information). By way ofan illustration, the same gesture issued in different locations by auser may comprise different sensory contexts.

Various methodologies may be utilized in order to determine theassociations between the context and user instructions, including, e.g.,those described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/953,595 entitled“APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR CONTROLLING OF ROBOTIC DEVICES”, filed Jul.29, 2013; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/918,338 entitled “ROBOTICTRAINING APPARATUS AND METHODS”, filed Jun. 14, 2013; U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/918,298 entitled “HIERARCHICAL ROBOTICCONTROLLER APPARATUS AND METHODS”, filed Jun. 14, 2013; U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/918,620 entitled “PREDICTIVE ROBOTIC CONTROLLERAPPARATUS AND METHODS”, filed Jun. 14, 2013; U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/907,734 entitled “ADAPTIVE ROBOTIC INTERFACE APPARATUS ANDMETHODS”, filed May 31, 2013; U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/842,530 entitled “ADAPTIVE PREDICTOR APPARATUS AND METHODS”, filedMar. 15, 2013; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/842,562 entitled“ADAPTIVE PREDICTOR APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR ROBOTIC CONTROL”, filedMar. 15, 2013; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/842,616 entitled“ROBOTIC APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR DEVELOPING A HIERARCHY OF MOTORPRIMITIVES”, filed Mar. 15, 2013; U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/842,647 entitled “MULTICHANNEL ROBOTIC CONTROLLER APPARATUS ANDMETHODS”, filed Mar. 15, 2013; and U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/842,583 entitled “APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR TRAINING OF ROBOTICDEVICES”, filed March 15, microphone 16, the image signal S2 from theCCD camera 17, the its entirety, and/or U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/244,890, entitled “APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR REMOTELY CONTROLLINGROBOTIC DEVICES”, filed Apr. 3, 2014, the contents of which werepreviously incorporated herein by reference in their entirety supra.

An action may be assigned to a given context. In some implementations,e.g., such as described below with respect to FIGS. 6A-6B, a context,comprising detection of a book being open, may be assigned an actioncomprising execution of a command to turn on a desk lamp. In someimplementations of associations based on a look up table (LUT), upondetecting a context (the book being open) and an action to turn thelight on, an entry in the LUT corresponding to a combination of openingof a hook and the “LIGHT ON” command may be incremented. In someimplementations, the combination may comprise opening of a book andturning off of the TV, and/or other combinations. In one or moreimplementations of the disclosure using a predictor comprisingartificial neuron networks, occurrence of a given combination may causean increment of a corresponding connection efficacy.

Developed associations between the sensory context and the controlcommands may be stored for further use, as shown by arrow 104 in FIG.1A. In some implementations, e.g., such as illustrated with respect toFIG. 10 below, the association information 104 may comprise a LUT storedwithin a nonvolatile storage medium of the learning controllerapparatus. In one or more implementations, e.g., such as illustratedwith respect to FIG. 4, the association information 104 may be on anonvolatile storage medium disposed outside of the learning controllerapparatus (e.g., within a computing Cloud, and/or other storage device,e.g., depository 406 in FIG. 4)).

During learning, the apparatus 100 may be configured to provide feedback102. In some implementations of training by the user, the feedback 102may comprise one or more of audible, vibration, and/or visibleindications to the user configured to communicate information related tolearning progress (e.g., a success indication signifying that thecontrol command was received and the association with the sensorycontext was determined and stored, a failure-to-learn indicationsignifying that the control command was received but the associationwith the sensory context was not successfully determined or stored;and/or a perceptual indication signifying that the sensory context wasambiguous, had no discernible signal, and/or substantially overlappedwith the sensory context already associated with another controlcommand.) In some implementations, lack of the indication may signify tothe user that the control command was not received by the appliance(e.g., due to obstruction or interference). In some implementations oftraining by the computerized agent, the feedback 102 may comprise one ormore of electrical, infrared, RF, signals and/or computer messagesconfigured to communicate information related to learning progress.

Upon developing the associations between the sensory context and theremote control commands, the computerized apparatus (e.g., 100 in FIG.1A) may be capable of providing one or more control instructions toappliance device in lieu of the remote control commands 106 provided bythe user and/or computerized agent.

FIG. 1B illustrates provision of control instructions to an appliancedevice by a computerized controller apparatus, according to one or moreimplementations. The apparatus 110 may comprise a specialized and/orcommercially available computerized apparatus, e.g., the apparatus 100described above with respect to FIG. 1A above. The apparatus 110 may beconfigured to operate a control process configured to produce controloutput 116. In some implementations, the control output 116 may compriseone or more instructions to an appliance device (e.g., an autonomousvacuum cleaner) based on occurrence of a given sensory contextdetermined in sensory input 118.

The apparatus 110 of FIG. 1B may utilize process configuration 114(e.g., the configuration 104 learned during training and described abovewith respect to FIG. 1A) in order relate the occurring context to arespective control output 116. In one or more implementations, theconfiguration 114 may comprise a look up table whose entries have beenpopulated during learning, an array of efficacies (e.g., weights) for anartificial neuron network (e.g., a perceptron), and/or otherconfiguration. Provision of the control instructions 116 may beeffectuated over wired and/or wireless interface.

The apparatus 110 of FIG. 1B may comprise an interface to a sensorcomponent configured to provide the sensory input 118 to the controlprocess. In some implementations, the sensory input may comprise avisual, audio, radio frequency and/or other sensor data, e.g., such asdescribed above with respect to FIG. 1A. The sensor information may beused for determining context associated with the environment using anyapplicable methodologies including these described below with respect toFIG. 15 and/or FIGS. 17A-17D. In one or more implementations, such asobject and/or gesture recognition, the sensory input 118 may comprise asequence of digital images comprised of pixels.

The control instructions of the output 116 may be produced based on adetermination of occurrence one or more previously occurring context(s)within the sensory input 118. By way of an illustration, the apparatus110 may determine an occurrence of a gesture (e.g., a user pointing ahand at a TV) using a camera, a voice command “ROOMBA VACUUM DINGINGROOM NOW” using a microphone, and/or other context. During learning,contemporaneously with the gesture, the user may issue an “ON” controlcommand to the TV, e.g., using an RF or IR remote controller asdescribed above with respect to FIG. 1A. During operation, subsequent tolearning, the apparatus 110 may automatically determine that the “ON”control command is to be provided based on detecting the user pointing ahand at the TV in the sensory input 118. The apparatus 110 mayautomatically provide the “ON” control command to the TV via output 116.In some implementations, the ON control command provision may beeffectuated using an RF/IR interface. Such functionality may (i) obviateneed for users of home appliances and/or other devices to performstep-by-step control of robotic devices, (ii) enable prompt commandresponses to changes in context, provide more precise commands, (iii)provide commands fully autonomously, and/or (iv) generate multiplecommands for simultaneous control of multiple controllable aspects(e.g., speed, direction, channel, volume) and/or operate multipledevices contemporaneous with one another (e.g., mute TV while activatingphone speaker function) and/or other advantages that may be discernablegiven the present disclosure.

During operation, the apparatus 110 may be configured to providefeedback 112. In some implementations of training by the user, thefeedback 112 may comprise one or more of audible, vibration, and/orvisible indications to the user configured to communicate informationrelated to operation progress (e.g., such as described above withrespect to FIG. 1A). In some implementations of training by thecomputerized agent, the feedback 112 may comprise one or more ofelectrical, infrared, RF, signals and/or computer messages configured tocommunicate information related to learning progress.

In some implementations, wherein the output 116 may comprise RF signaltransmission, a bound connection (e.g. a radio link session) may beestablished between a controller 110 and the appliance. Some linkexamples may include a Bluetooth session, a Digital Spectrum Modulation(DSM) session, and/or other links. The link may be established based onidentity of the appliance device and/or the controller.

In one or more implementations, wherein information for establishment ofthe link (e.g., communication protocol, hopping sequence, deviceidentification codes, and/or other), may not be readily available, amulti-carrier command delivery approach may be employed, e.g., such asdescribed below with respect to FIG. 2A.

FIG. 2A illustrates a system comprising a controller apparatus in datacommunication with a computerized appliance via a link of one signalcarrier type and a remote control device via another signal carriertype, according to one or more implementations.

The system 200 may comprise a learning controller apparatus 210, e.g.,the apparatus 100, 110 described above with respect to FIGS. 1A-1Band/or apparatus 230 shown in FIG. 2B. The system 200 may comprise acomputerized appliance (e.g., remotely controlled fan 220), and a remotecontroller 202 configured to provide control commands for the appliance220. In the implementation of FIG. 2A, the remote controller 202 mayutilize carrier of a first type (e.g., IR waves) for communicatingcontrol instructions 206 to the controller 210. The controller 210 maycomprise a remote controller component 214 (component 234 in FIG. 2B)configured to provide control commands via transmissions 216 to theappliance 220. In one exemplary implementation, the component 214 maycomprise electronics portion of a remote controller comprising atransmitter configured to interface to the appliance 220 (e.g., fanremote controller printed circuit board without the enclosure)interfaced to processing component of the controller 210 (e.g., thecomponent 238 of the controller 230 in FIG. 2B). The interface maycomprise an electrical component configured to operate at a givenvoltage, pull-up or pull-down resistors, and/or other circuitry.

Various implementations of the data communication 216 between thecontroller component 214 and the appliance 220 may be employed. In someimplementations, a Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS), and/orfrequency hopping spread spectrum” (FHSS) technology may be utilized.DSSS communication technology may employ carrier phase-modulation usinga string of pseudorandom (PR) code symbols called “chips”, each of whichmay have duration that is shorter than an information bit. That is, eachinformation bit is modulated by a sequence of much faster chips.Therefore, the chip rate is much higher than the information signal bitrate. DSSS uses a signal structure in which the sequence of chipsproduced by the transmitter is already known by the receiver. Thereceiver may apply the known PR sequence to counteract the effect of thePR sequence on the received signal in order to reconstruct theinformation signal.

Frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) is a method of transmittingradio signals by rapidly switching a carrier among many frequencychannels, using a pseudorandom sequence known to both transmitter andreceiver.

The controller apparatus 210 may comprise a sensor component 212configured to provide sensory input to the controller. In someimplementations of a bStem™ integrated platform, the component maycomprise a discrete camera module and/or microphone component. In one ormore implementations wherein the controller 210 may comprise a portablecomputing and communications device (e.g., a tablet, a smartphonedevice) the component 214 may comprise a built-in camera and/ormicrophone of the computing device. The component 212 may provideinformation related to gestures, voice commands, and/or otherindications configured to convey intentions of a user.

By way of an illustration, the user may whirl an arm around and/or pointa finger at the fan 220 in order to indicate a start operation. The usergesture intention may be accompanied by a transmission of an “ON”command using the remote controller 202. In some implementations, thecontroller 210 may be configured to establish a data link with (pair to)the remote controller 202. Pairing of the remote controller 202 and thelearning controller 210 may enable transmission of the user commandsfrom the handset 202 to the learning controller 210. In someimplementations establishment of the link 206 may be facilitated by,e.g., obtaining link protocol parameters specifications (e.g., thespreading code, list of device IDs) for given remote controller device202.

In order to learn associations between user commands and contextassociated with the task, the learning controller 210 may comprise areceiver component (e.g., the receiver component 234 of the controllerapparatus 230 shown in FIG. 2B) configured to detect transmissions 206.Detection of remote control commands in the transmissions 206 may beeffectuated using a variety of methodologies including, e.g., signalmonitoring described in co-owned U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/244,888 entitled “LEARNING APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR CONTROL OFROBOTIC DEVICES VIA SPOOFING”, filed Apr. 3, 2014; Ser. No. 14/244,892entitled “SPOOFING REMOTE CONTROL APPARATUS AND METHODS”, filed Apr. 3,2014; and Ser. No. 14/244,890 entitled “APPARATUS AND METHODS FORREMOTELY CONTROLLING ROBOTIC DEVICES”, filed Apr. 3, 2014, each of theforegoing previously incorporated herein by reference in their entiretysupra. As described in above referenced applications, the controller 210may monitor transmissions 206 in order to detect one or more knowncommands (e.g., ON, OFF, and/or other) using a given pulseconfiguration.

The controller 210 may comprise a processing component configured tooperate a learning process configured to learn associations between theuser intentions (e.g., the gesture) and the control command provided viatransmissions 206.

Referring now to FIG. 2B, one implementation of a controller for use inthe system of FIG. 2A is shown and described. The controller 230 of FIG.2B may comprise processing component 240 operably coupled to the sensorcomponent 232, the receiver component 234 and remote controllerelectronics 236 comprising a transmitter.

The processing component 240 may comprise a specialized computerizedapparatus (e.g., bStem™) and/or a general use computerized apparatus(e.g., a tablet computer, a smartphone, a computer, and/or othercomputerized device) configured to operate a learning process (e.g., byBrainOS library). In one or more implementations, the learning processoperation may be by a remote server interfaced to the processingcomponent 240 via a wired or wireless link.

In some implementations, the controller apparatus 230 may comprise auser interface component 238 configured to communicate to the learningprocess indications configured to start, stop, pause, and/or resumelearning. In some implementations, learning may commence automaticallybased on detection of one or more remote transmissions 206 and/orcontext in the sensory input. In one or more implementations, learningmay terminate based on receipt of a stop command via the interface 238,expiration of a time interval, number of context-command occurrences,and/or another indication (e.g., absence of transmissions 206 within agiven time period) automatically based on detection of one or moreremote transmissions 206 and/or context in the sensory input.

Subsequent to activation of learning, the learning process may detectone or more control instructions within the remote transmissions (e.g.,206 in FIG. 2A). The learning process may be configured to determine anassociation between the control instructions provided by the receiver234 and context determined from the sensory input provided by the sensor232. In some implementations, the context may comprise informationrelated to presence, size, and/or location of a person, gesture, audiosignal (e.g., clap whistle) and/or other indication provided by a user.The control instruction may comprise a turn ON/OFF and/or other command.In some implementations (not shown) the context information may comefrom sensors distributed remotely in the environment. Variousmethodologies may be utilized in order to determine the associationsbetween the context and user control instructions, including, forexample, adaptive predictor methodologies including these describedabove with respect to applications '888, '890, '892, referenced aboveand/or U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/842,530 entitled “ADAPTIVEPREDICTOR APPARATUS AND METHODS”, filed Mar. 15, 2013, the foregoingbeing incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. In someimplementations, the learning process may comprise adaptation of a lookup table based on occurrence of given associations (e.g., user handgesture and remote command to turn the fan ON). In one or moreimplementations, the learning process may be configured based onadaptation of an artificial neuron network (e.g., a perceptron), and/orother learning approaches.

In one or more implementations, data from two or more sensor types maybe combined (e.g., via an adaptive data fusion process). A falsepositive of features detected using video, may be filtered out usingaudio signal provided in order to disambiguate context detection. By wayof an illustration of one implementation of audio/visual sensor input, arepresentation of a person leaning towards a cell phone may not triggeran association with a TV mute action. However, a representation of theperson leaning towards a cell phone when accompanied by the cell phonering may cause muting of the TV. In another such example, anaudio/visual sensor input may detect when there are multiple raisedhands among a group of people, and then an automatic camera may selectthe appropriate person with a raised hand gesture (from the group ofpeople) based on a voice indication (e.g., “I have a question”).

In some implementations, wherein the learning controller operation maybe effectuated by a portable communications device (e.g., a smartphone)determination of the associations between the context and user controlinstructions may be effectuated by the portable device using sensorydata obtained by a sensor component of the portable device (e.g., amicrophone, a camera, and/or other component).

In some implementations, determination of the associations between thecontext and user control instructions may be effectuated by a computingentity (e.g., a local computer and/or a remote computing Cloud) in datacommunication with the apparatus 230 of FIG. 2B (and/or 210 of/FIG. 2A),e.g., such as described with respect to FIG. 4, below. The computingentity may communicate with the apparatus 230 of FIG. 2B (and/or 210of/FIG. 2A) over one or more of wired link (e.g., serial, Ethernet)and/or wireless link (e.g., Bluetooth, WiFi, 3G-4G cellular). Theapparatus 230 of FIG. 2B (and/or 210 of/FIG. 2A) may provide sensorycontext via the link to the computing entity, and/or receive associationinformation from the computing entity. The sensory context informationmay be compressed before transmission to the remote computer cloud,and/or may comprise single image frames or a continuous video stream. Asa form of compression, the transmission may include differences fromperiodically transmitted key frames of data, in some implementations.

Returning now to FIG. 2A, based on developing the associations betweenthe sensory context and user remote control commands, the controller 210may be capable of providing one or more control instructions over thelink 216 to the device 220 in lieu of remote control instructions 206.In some implementations, wherein protocol specification of the controlcommunication between the handset 202 and the robotic device 224 may notbe available to the controller 210, individual command transmissionswithin the communication over the link 216 may be effectuated byactivating one or more components of the component 214 electronics usinga direct electrical interface methodology. By way of an illustration,contacts corresponding to, e.g., the ON (or ON/OFF) button(s) may beshort-circuited using an electronic relay of the apparatus 210electronics.

Some computerized appliances (as originally provided by a manufacturer)may not be provided with remote control functionality (e.g., dishwasher,refrigerator, and/or other). Some appliance operations, may benefit froman operational trajectory that may prove too difficult for a non-expertuser to navigate, too time consuming, too/boring (e.g., follow a regularpattern when vacuuming/mowing a lawn) and/or otherwise not desirable tobe performed by the user using manual remote control operations. Someoperations may prove too complex for remote control operations (e.g.,navigating an unmanned aerial vehicle around subjects of interest whileavoiding obstacles, e.g., as described in co-pending and co-owned ownedU.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/332,322 entitled “APPARATUS ANDMETHODS FOR TRACKING USING AERIAL VIDEO”, filed Jul. 15, 2014, theforegoing being incorporated by reference in its entirety). In someimplementations, a user may elect to remotely operate computerizedappliances using interfaces that may originally not intended for usewith the appliance. By way of an illustration, the user may elect toemploy gestures instead of using a remote controller and/or an apprunning on a tablet computer and/or smartphone in order to operate ahome appliance ordinarily operated via e.g., an infrared remote (e.g.,TV, fan, HVAC, and or other devices).

In some implementations, a user may train a learning computerized deviceto develop an association between a context derived from sensoryinformation and an action. In some implementations, the context maycomprise user gesture, audible signal (a whistle, a spoken word, a clap,and/or other indication); the action may comprise activation of a userinterface element (e.g., a soft/hard button press, a swipe, touch screenactivation) configured cause generation of an event indicative of thecontext. By way of an illustration of using a home automation systemcomprising a user interface device, the user may teach the learningcomputerized device to trigger the event by associating the context(e.g., hand gesture) with a pressing of a button on the user interfacedevice. In one or more implementations, the context change may bedetermined based on a history (within time window) of a givencharacteristic. By way of an illustration of audio based context, if abackground sound may be present initially (e.g., due to operation of amotor appliance, e.g. a washer), the sudden absence of the sound mayidentify context and trigger an n inspection action. Initial presence ofan object on the table (e.g., a flower vase) followed by sudden absenceof that flower vase from the table may a cleaning action.

FIG. 3A illustrates a computerized apparatus configured to produce anevent associated with a sensory context, in accordance with one or moreimplementations.

The apparatus 310 may comprise a user interface device 310, e.g., asmartphone, comprising a camera, a display, and a touch interface, andthe learning controller operation may be effectuated by executing aplurality of instructions (e.g., a software application and/or alibrary) by the device 310.

During training, the device 310 may be operable to determine a context(e.g., user gesture and/or sound) using a camera and/or a microphone.Contemporaneous with the provision of the gesture and/or the sound, theuser may activate one or more elements of the user interface (e.g., bytouching soil buttons 312, 314). The software application executed bythe device 310 may be configured to produce an event comprising an eventidentification (EventID) associated with activation of a given button,e.g., Button1ID. Training of the associations may be effectuated usingany applicable methodologies including these described herein.

Subsequent to training, the user may link given EventID with an actionto be performed by a home appliance. In some implementations, the linkmay be effectuated by providing executable instructions to the device310, configured to turn on a given appliance. By way of an illustration,the user may provide code configured to produce a plurality of RF or IRpulses to operate a fan and/or TV remotely. In one or moreimplementations, if this than that (IFTTT) framework may be employedwherein a trigger (e.g., the event associated with a hand gesture) maybe linked to an action (e.g., turn on/off TV) via a recipe (instructionsconfigured to cause transmission of IR pulses).

FIG. 3B depicts use of the trained and configured computerized apparatusof FIG. 3A for operate an appliance based on one or more events andsensory context, according to one or more implementations.

Subsequent to training the device 320 to detect an indication (e.g., agesture) and providing executable instruction, a user may utilize theapparatus 310 in order to operate a given appliance. The apparatus 320may detect a gesture indication by the user in video input denoted byarrow 328 in FIG. 3B. Based on the detected indication, the apparatusmay automatically produce an event, e.g., the Button1ID event associatedwith the button 312 activation by the user shown and described abovewith respect to FIG. 3A. It is noteworthy that during operation, thebutton associated with the given ID (Button1ID) may not need to beactivated by the user, as illustrated by open face button 322 in FIG.3B. Responsive to the event being produced, the apparatus 320 mayautomatically produce remote transmissions 326. In one or moreimplementations, the transmissions 326 may comprise pulses of IR, RF,sound, light waves conveying one or more commands to the appliance 324.For example, the transmissions 326 may comprise pulses configured tocommunicate an ON command to the fan 324 based on detection of the userpointing right hand at the fan.

FIG. 3C illustrates a system for training a learning controller tooperate an appliance using a user interface device based on associatingone or more events and sensory context, according to one or moreimplementations.

The system 330 may comprise a learning controller apparatus 340 and auser interface device 332. e.g., a smartphone, a tablet computer and/orother. The device 332 may comprise a display, a touch interface, and acommunications component. In one or more implementations, the controllerapparatus 340 may comprise the controller 100, 110, 210, 230 describedabove with respect to FIGS. 1A-2B, respectively. The apparatus 340 maycomprise a sensor component 334 configured to provide sensory input tothe controller learning process. In one or more implementations, thesensor component may comprise a camera, a microphone and/or other sensorconfigured to provide information related to operating environment(e.g., user premises) of the apparatus 340.

During training, the apparatus 340 may be operable to determine a userindication using sensory input 338 obtained by the sensor component 334.In one or more implementations, sensory input 338 may comprise one ormore video image characterizing a gesture (e.g., the user pointing ahand at a ceiling fan). Contemporaneous with the provision of thegesture and/or the sound indication, the user may activate one or moreelements of the user interface device 332 (e.g., by touching softbuttons 313, 315). Software application executed by the device 332 maybe configured to produce an event comprising an event identification(EventID) associated with activation of a given button, e.g., Button1IDcorresponding to activation of the button 313. The EventID may becommunicated from the device 332 to the apparatus 340 via acommunications link 336. In one or more implementations, the link 336may comprise one or more of a wired or wireless links (e.g., USB,Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth, IR, pulse modulated RF as on the 27 MHz and49 MHz bands, and/or other communication connections).

Training of determining the associations may comprise multiplerepetitions of the gesture/button press combinations and may beeffectuated using any applicable methodologies including these describedherein (e.g., using a perceptron and/or a look up table).

Subsequent to training the apparatus 340 to determine the associationsbetween a given user indication and the corresponding event, the eventmay be linked to an action by an appliance device, e.g., as shown anddescribed in the implementation of FIG. 5A.

FIG. 5A illustrates a user interface configured for linking of an eventassociated with a context to an action by an appliance device, inaccordance with one or more implementations.

In one or more implementations, the linking may be implemented using aconfigurator application executed by the controller 340, a userinterface device 332 of FIG. 3C and/or other computerized device. Theconfigurator application may be executed on a smartphone and/or a tabletcomputing device and produce an action-device profile that may beuploaded to the controller (e.g., 210 in FIG. 2A and/or 362 in FIG. 3D).In some implementations, the configurator application may be executed bythe controller apparatus (e.g., 210 in FIG. 2A and/or 362 in FIG. 3D)configured to be operated as a server and/or executed by a remote(Cloud) server system. A user may access the configurator interface viaa smartphone-based and/or a web-based client application. Theconfigurator application may be configured to provide a user interfacecomponent, e.g., such as the interface 500 illustrated in FIG. 5A. Theinterface 500 may comprise an event list 501 configured to present oneor more event IDs, e.g., 502, 504, 506, that may have been associatedpreviously (e.g., the events produced by pressings of buttons 313, 315in FIG. 3C) with user indications during training described above withrespect to FIGS. 3A-3C. By way of an illustration, the event ID 502 maybe associated with the user pointing their right hand at a ceiling fan,the event ID 504 may be associated with the user pointing their lefthand at the fan, the event ID 506, may be associated with the userholding the right hand up, and/or other associations. The interface 500may comprise a device list 510 configured to present one or moredevices, e.g., 512, 514, that may be available for configuration and/oroperation. In some implementations, the device list may be configuredstatically during installation of the home automation system, and/ordetermined dynamically using message broadcast/interrogation techniques.By way of an illustration, device ID 512 may correspond to a TV, thedevice ID may denote the ceiling fan, and/or other devices. Theinterface 500 may comprise an action list 520 configured to present oneor more actions, e.g., 522, 524 that may be supported by devices of thehome automation. By way of an illustration, the action 522 maycorrespond to the ON command being communicated to the selected device;the action 524 may correspond to the OFF command being communicated tothe selected device. Action list 520 may be customized for individuallisted devices 520. For example, actions that may not be appropriateand/or supported by a given device (e.g., volume option for a fan and/ormotor speed for a TV) may be not displayed and/or disabled (e.g., grayedout). In some implementations, available actions list may be customizedfor individual device, by for example, adding, removing individualaction, modifying action description (e.g., SPEED for the fan VOLUME forthe TV).

In one or more implementations, an event from the event list (e.g., theevent 502) may first be associated with an action (e.g., the ON action522). Subsequently, the action may be applied to one or more devices(e.g., the devices 512, 514). For example, a user transitioning fromstanding to sitting position may be associated with turning on thetelevision, turning on the associated speaker system and dimminglighting. The event-action linking methodology may be configured toenable a given event (e.g., user gesture) that corresponds to(different) contexts that may be associated with (different) actionsbased on a location of the user providing the gesture. By way of anillustration, a user gesture comprising pointing a hand at a wallproximate a wall switch may be associated with the light turn on/offaction; the same pointing gesture away from the wall switch may beassociated with no action.

As illustrated in FIG. 5A, the event-device-action association may beconfigured by a user selection of given event ID (e.g., 502), acorresponding device (e.g., 514), and the target action (e.g., 522),depicted by shaded shapes in FIG. 5A. The linking of a user indicationto an action by a home appliance may enable the user to operate theappliance to perform the action using interface methods that may nothave been previously attainable and/or have been envisioned by theappliance and/or home automation system manufacturer.

FIG. 3D illustrates a system configured to enable a user to operate anappliance device using previously learned sensory context associations,according to one or more implementations. The system 350 may comprise alearning component 360, controller component 362, and a computerizedappliance 364 (e.g., a TV, a remotely controlled fan, motorizedfurniture and/or other device). The component 360 may comprise a sensorcomponent 352 and a communications interface configured to communicatedata between components 360 and 362. The interface may comprise a wired(e.g., serial bus, Ethernet, 2 wire, SPI, I2C, CAN bus, and/or otherinterface configurations) and/or wireless interface (e.g., Bluetooth,WiFi, 3G-4G cellular, IR, and/or other wireless data transmission link).In some implementations, the learning component 360 may comprise theapparatus 210, 230 of FIGS. 2A-2B and/or 340 of FIG. 3A; the sensorcomponent 352 may comprise a camera, a microphone, a touch sensorconfigured to communicate information related to sensory input 358 tothe component 360. The component 360 may be operable in accordance witha process configured based on a configuration determined duringtraining. In some implementations, the configuration may comprise a LUTand/or an array of weights. e.g., described above with respect to theconfiguration 114 of FIG. 1B above. In one or more implementations, theinput 358 may comprise the input 118, 308, 328 338, described above withrespect to FIGS. 1A, 3A-3C and be configured to communicate one or moreuser indications (e.g., a gesture, a sound, posture, position, and/orother characteristic). By way of an illustration, the sensor component358 may be configured to provide a sequence of image frames depictingthe user pointing a hand at a ceiling fan. Based on detecting a context(e.g., the hand gesture) in the sensory input and determining that anevent ID (e.g., corresponding to the button 313 in FIG. 3C) may havebeen previously associated with the detected context. The event IDcorresponding to the detected context may be communicated via the link354 to the component 362. Various communications methodologies may beemployed, including a sending a packet, a coded pulse, a message, analogand/or digital value, and/or other methods.

In some implementations, wherein the component 360 may comprise ageneral use computing and/or communications apparatus (e.g., a tabletcomputer, a smartphone, a laptop a desktop computer) and/or a remotecomputing cloud entity) context determination and/or event-action linkoperations may be effectuated by an application executed by the generalused computing apparatus. By way of an illustration of one exemplaryimplementation, sensory input 358 may be pre-processed (e.g.,down-sampled, and/or compressed) and communicated to a cloud computingentity for analysis. The analysis may provide an event ID based on amatch with a previously determined configuration (e.g., LUT).

In some implementations, the component 362 may comprise a dedicatedcomputerized device (e.g., a home automation controller) provided, e.g.,as a part of home automation system installation. In one or moreimplementations, the component 362 may comprise a general use computingand/or communications device (e.g., a tablet computer, a smartphone, alaptop a desktop computer and/or a remote computing cloud computer)operating a home automation software application (e.g., an operatingsystem, a library e.g., the HomeKit™ by Apple, an app, and/or anothersoftware configuration).

In one or more implementations wherein the component 362 may comprise ageneral purpose computing apparatus (e.g., iPad™), functionality of thecomponents 360 and 362 may be implemented by the apparatus 362. By wayof an illustration, the iPad apparatus may comprise one or more sensorsand be configured to operate a BrainOS-based application configured toenable learning of the association between user indications and events(e.g., as described above with respect to FIG. 3C). During operation,the BrainOS application may be configured to detect a context in sensoryinput (e.g., user gesture in video imagery) and produce an event ID.

Based on receiving an event ID, the component 362 may determine anaction associated with the given event ID. For example, the component362 may utilize a table produced e.g., as output of the configurationprocess described with respect to FIG. 5A, and linking an event ID to anaction by an appliance, e.g., as shown in Table. 1.

TABLE 1 Event ID Device ID Action ID 00001 Fan ON 00010 Fan OFF

By way of an illustration, the user gesture may correspond to the eventID 00001 corresponding to fan ON action ID. Based on the determinationof the action ID, the component 362 may communicate a control command tothe appropriate destination (e.g., the appliance 364) usingcommunication link 356. The link 356 may comprise wired (e.g., serialbus, Ethernet, 2 wire, controller area network (CAN) bus, and/or otherwired link) and/or wireless interface (e.g., Bluetooth, WiFi, 3G-4Gcellular. IR, and/or other wireless data transmission link, in one ormore implementations.

In some implementations, wherein components 360 and 362 may comprisesoftware applications executed by a computerized device, the link 354may be effectuated using e.g., a message, a semaphore, a queue, a memorylocation and/or any applicable data exchange methodology between two ormore software applications.

In some implementations, wherein the component 362 may comprise adedicated computerized device, e.g., a home automation controllerprovided as a part of home automation (HA) system installation, theconfigurator application described above with respect to FIG. 5A may beexecuted by the HA controller. In some implementations, the configuratorapplication may be executed by apparatus 340, a user interface device332 of FIG. 3C, component 360, and/or other computerized device. Theconfigurator application may comprise a library and/or an application(e.g., Apple HomeKit of the iOS operating system) operable on a generalpurpose computing device, provided with the component 340/360 (anapplication provided by Brain Corporation and configured to be operableby bStem™ integrated platform) and/or by another party.

In one or more implementations, the configuration application may beexecuted by a remote computing resource (e.g., by cloud computingservice) and interfaced to a user via a user interface computing device(e.g., a smartphone).

FIG. 4 illustrates a computerized system configured to implementmethodology for learning of associations between user indications andperforming of actions by an appliance apparatus using a remote computingentity, in accordance with one implementation. The system 400 maycomprise a computerized entity 406 configured to communicate data withone or more computerized apparatus 410 (e.g., 410_1, 410_2). In someimplementations, the entity 406 may comprise a computing cloud entity(e.g., a cloud service, a server, in a public, private and/or hybridnetwork). In one or more implementations, the entity may comprise acomputer server, a desktop, and/or another computing platform that maybe accessible to the apparatus 410. In some implementations of the cloudcomputing services, one or more apparatus 410 may communicate with theentity 406 for access to computing resources (e.g., processing cycles,storage, previously stored configuration of a learning process, and/ormemory) in order to, e.g., detect context (e.g., user gestures) insensor) data provided by, e.g., sensor component 232 of FIG. 2B, 334,352 of FIGS. 3C-3D. In some implementations, the apparatus 410 maycommunicate with the entity 406 in order to save, load, and/or update,their processing configuration (e.g., robotic brain image 1012 in FIG.10, learning process configuration 104, 114 in FIGS. 1A-1B). The roboticbrain image and/or learning process configuration may compriseexecutable code (e.g., binary image files), bytecode, an array ofweights for an artificial neuron network (ANN), a table, and/or othercomputer formats. In some implementations, the apparatus 410 maycommunicate with the entity 406 in order to save, and/or retrievelearned associations between sensory context and actions of acomputerized appliance device. e.g., as described with respect to FIGS.1A-3D, and/or FIGS. 6A-9B.

In one or more implementations the apparatus 410 may comprise a userinterface device 310, 332, e.g., a smartphone/tablet computer,comprising a camera, a display, and a touch interface. In one or moreimplementations (e.g., such as described above with respect to FIGS. 2A,2B and/or 3C-3D) the apparatus 410 may comprise a computerized apparatus210, 230, 340, 360. In some implementations (e.g., shown and describedwith respect to FIG. 3C), the computerized apparatus 410 may comprise aspecialized integrated platform bStem™, comprising a camera, a processorand a communications interface. The apparatus 410 may be disposed atuser premises (e.g., a home, an office, a commercial facility (e.g., awarehouse, manufacturing floor, a shopping mall, an amusement park,and/or other facility).

In one or more implementations, the apparatus 410 may be configured toobtain sensory information related to the task (e.g. the input 108 inFIG. 1A). The sensory information may be provided to a learning processconfigured to effectuate the learning of the associations. In someimplementations, the learning process may be configured based onexecution of a plurality of instructions (e.g., a software application,a component of an operating system, and/or a library) by thecomputerized apparatus 410.

In some implementations wherein operation of the learning process mayrequire computational power in excess of that that may be provided by aprocessing module of the apparatus 410, one or more portions of thelearning process may be operable by the remote computerized entity 406.In one or more implementations, the remote computerized entity 406 maybe configured to receive the sensory information (e.g. the input 108described above with respect to FIG. 1A) obtained by the computerizedapparatus 410. The entity 406 may be configured to operate a featureextraction process configured to determine context (e.g., presence ofobjects and/or object characteristics (e.g., location, size, position,and/or other parameters), user body position, configuration, gesture,environmental conditions (e.g., ambient light level, time of day,temperature and/or other parameters that may be related to execution ofthe action by a computerized appliance (e.g., 364 in FIG. 3D such as aTV, a remotely controlled fan, a motorized furniture and/or otherdevice). In other implementations where rapid reaction time may berequired, the apparatus 410 may perform feature extraction on-boardusing specialized hardware. The remote computerized entity 406 mayperform learning and/or optimization computations intended to update thespecialized feature extraction hardware of the apparatus 410.

In FIG. 4, one or more implementations the computerized apparatus (e.g.,410_1) may connect to the entity 406 via a remote link 414. In someimplementations, the computerized apparatus (e.g., 410_2) may connect tothe entity 406 via a local computerized interface device 404 using alocal link 408. In one or more implementations, the local link 408 maycomprise a network (Ethernet), wireless link (e.g. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth,infrared, radio), serial bus link (USB, Firewire,) and/or other. Thelocal computerized interface device 404 may communicate with thecomputerized entity 406 via link 412. In one or more implementations,links 412 and/or 414 may comprise an internet connection, and/or otherdata connection effectuated via any of the applicable wired and/orwireless technologies (e.g., Ethernet, Wi-Fi, LTE, CDMA. GSM,and/other).

In one or more applications that may require computational power inexcess of that that may be provided by a processing module of theapparatus 410, the local computerized interface device 404 may beconfigured to perform computations associated with contextdetermination, obtaining user instruction, determining of associationbetween the context and the user instructions and/or other operations(e.g., provision of commands to the appliance device). The localcomputerized interface device 404 may comprise a variety of computingdevices including, for example, a desktop PC, a laptop, a notebook, atablet, a phablet, a smartphone (e.g., an iPhone®), a printed circuitboard and/or a system on a chip (SOC) comprising one or more of generalprocessor unit (GPU), field programmable gate array (FPGA), multi-corecentral processing unit (CPU), an application specific integratedcircuit (ASIC), and/or other computational hardware.

FIG. 5A illustrates user interface configured to enable linking of anevent associated with a context to an action by an appliance device, inaccordance with one or more implementations. Methodology illustrated anddescribed with respect to FIG. 5A may be utilized with one or morecomputerized devices (e.g., 310, 320 of FIGS. 3A-3B). In one or moreimplementations, the user interface 500 of FIG. 5A may be effectuatedbased on execution of one or more computer instructions by acomputerized device, e.g., the device 314 in FIG. 3A, 332 in FIG. 3C,360, and/or 362 in FIG. 3D. Components of the user interface 500 may bepresented to a user via a display (e.g., display only device and/ordisplay-input device (e.g., touch-sensitive proximity sensitivedisplay). Elements of the user interface 500 may be configured tocommunicate user selections to an appliance configuration application.User selections may be effectuated using any applicable user inputinterface, e.g., a pointing device (mouse, stylus), touch/proximityinterface, an audio indication, a gesture, and/or other communicationindication.

In FIG. 5A, panel 501 may be configured to present indications 502, 504,506 associated with one or more previously generated events. Individualevent indications (e.g., 502) may correspond to, e.g., an event producedby activation of the button 312 as described with respect to FIG. 3A.

In FIG. 5A, panel 510 may be configured to represent one or morecomputerized devices (e.g., appliance devices 512, 514) that may beavailable for configuration by a user. In some implementations, a givendevice representation (e.g., 514) may comprise a button (e.g., a softbutton on a touch-sensitive interface), a graphical user interface (GUI)element selectable by a pointer (e.g., a stylus, a mouse, a finger),and/or other input element. Representations for unavailable (e.g.,powered off and/or unsupported) appliance devices may be not displayedand/or rendered unselectable (e.g., grayed out).

In FIG. 5A, panel 520 may be configured to present one or more actions(e.g., 522, 524) that may be supported by a given appliance device(e.g., device 514). Individual action indications (e.g., ON actionelement 522) may be configured to convey information characterizing theaction. In one or more implementations, the information may comprisetext (e.g., ON), an icon (e.g., shown by the element 542 in FIG. 5B), acommand code, and/or other information.

A user may utilize the interface 500 in order to perform an action-eventassociation as follows. Upon activating the configuration application,the user may be presented with one or more available events and/orappliances that may be controlled. The user may select an event (e.g.,by activating element 502 in panel 501). For the selected event, theuser may select an appliance that is to be controlled (e.g., byactivating element 514 in panel 510). The configuration application mayupdate the interface 500 to present one or more actions (e.g., ON, OFF,MUTE) that may be performed by the selected appliance (e.g., a TV). Theuser may select a target action (e.g., the turn TV ON action) byactivating the respective element 522. It is noteworthy, that the panel520 may be updated in accordance with the selected appliance in order topresent actions supported by the selected appliance.

In some implementations, a given event may be linked with an action tobe performed by a plurality of devices (e.g., power off all componentsof a home entertainment system). FIG. 5B illustrates user interfaceconfigured to enable linking of an event associated with a context to anaction executable by multiple appliance devices of an automation system,in accordance with one or more implementations. Methodology illustratedand described with respect to FIG. 5B may be utilized with one or morecomputerized devices (e.g., 310, 320 of FIGS. 3A-3B).

In one or more implementations, the user interface 530 of FIG. 5B may beeffectuated based on execution of one or more computer instructions by acomputerized device. e.g., the device 314 in FIG. 3A. 332 in FIG. 3C,360, and/or 362 in FIG. 3D. Components of the user interface 530 may bepresented to a user via a display (e.g., display only device and/ordisplay-input device (e.g., touch-sensitive proximity sensitivedisplay). Elements of the user interface 500 may be configured tocommunicate user selections to an appliance configuration application.User selections may be effectuated using any applicable user inputinterface, e.g., a pointing device (mouse, stylus), touch/proximityinterface, an audio indication, a gesture, and/or other communicationindication.

In FIG. 5B, panel 501 may be configured to present indications 502, 504,506 associated with one or more previously generated events. e.g. asdescribed above with respect to FIG. 5A.

In FIG. 5B, panel 540 may be configured to present action(s) (e.g.,POWER action 542, PLAY action 544. PAUSE action 546) that may besupported by appliances within the automation system (e.g., homeentertainment). Individual action indications (e.g., POWER action 542)may be configured to convey information characterizing the action (e.g.,via the commonly recognizable icon 542).

In FIG. 5B, panels 550, 551 may be configured to represent one or morecomputerized devices (e.g., appliance devices 552, 554, 555) that may beavailable for executing the selected action (e.g., the POWER action542). In some implementations, a given device representation (e.g., 552)may comprise a button (e.g., a soft button on a touch-sensitiveinterface), a graphical user interface (GUI) element selectable by apointer (e.g., a stylus, a mouse, a finger), an icon, and/or other inputelement. The appliance panel may be configured to convey informationrelated to the one or more available appliances. In someimplementations, the information may comprise textual information (e.g.,a GUI element displaying TV text), a device code (e.g., a GUI elementdisplaying 101 code text), a commonly recognized icon (e.g., TV icon552), a combination of elements (e.g., DVD icon 554 with text) and/orother information representations. The user may select a target action(e.g., the POWER action) by activating the respective element 542.

The configuration application may update the device panel (e.g., 550,551) of the interface 530 in order to match appliances to the respectiveaction. Representations for unavailable (e.g., powered off and/orunsupported) appliance devices may be not displayed and/or renderedunselectable (e.g., grayed out). By way of an illustration, based on theuser selecting the POWER action (e.g., by activating the element 542)the appliance panel 550 may be configured to display the TV applianceicon 552 and the DVD appliance icon 554. Based on the user selecting thePLAY action (e.g., by activating the element 544) the correspondingappliance panel 551 may be configured to display the DVD appliance icon555. The user may select one or more target appliance (e.g., the TV, theDVD) by activating the respective element(s) 552, 554.

A user may utilize the interface 530 of FIG. 5B in order to associate anevent with an action execution as follows. Upon activating theconfiguration application, the user may be presented with one or moreavailable events, e.g., panel 501 of the GUI 530. The user may select anevent (e.g., by activating element 542 in panel 540). For the selectedaction, the user may select one or more target appliances (e.g., the TV.DVD, and/or other devices) by activating the respective device selectionelement(s) (e.g., 552, 554).

FIGS. 6A-6B illustrate operation of a computerized furniture apparatusby a learning system using context-action associations, according to oneor more implementations. System 600 shown in FIG. 6A may comprise acomputerized furniture appliance 620 and a learning controller apparatus610 comprising a sensor component 602 and a transmitter componentconfigured to communicate with the apparatus 620. The system 600 may beemployed by a user in order to train the controller apparatus 610 tooperate the appliance 620.

The controller apparatus may be incorporated into existing user premisesinfrastructure. In some implementations, the learning apparatus 610 maycomprise the apparatus 210 of FIG. 2A, 310, 320, 360 of FIGS. 3A-3C. Inone or more implementations, the controller apparatus may be embodiedwithin a household fixture component. e.g., a light-bulb and/or in anenclosure with a form factor resembling a light bulb and/orinterchangeable with a light bulb. The apparatus 610 may in someimplementations, be adapted to fit into existing mount, e.g., a mediumsized Edison 27 (E27). It will be appreciated by those skilled in thearts that a variety of sockets may be employed such as, e.g., MiniatureE10, E11, Candelabra E12, European E14. Intermediate E17, MediumE26/E27, 3-Lite (modified medium or mogul socket with additional ringcontact for 3-way lamps), Mogul E40, Skirted (PAR-38), Bayonet styles(Miniature bayonet, Bayonet candelabra, Bayonet Candelabra withpre-focusing collar. Medium pre-focus, Mogul pre-focus, Bi-post, and/orother (e.g., fluorescent T-5 mini, T-8, T12). In some implementations,the component 610 may comprise any household fixture with a powersource, e.g., a doorbell, an alarm (e.g., smoke alarm), a securitycamera, a motion sensor component, a lamp (e.g., portable lamp,torcher), DC and/or AC light fixture (halogen, day light fluorescent,LED, and/or other configuration. In one or more implementations, e.g.,such as shown and described with respect to FIGS. 3C, 9A-9D the learningapparatus 610 may comprise a computing device (e.g., a smartphone, atablet, a notebook computer) configured to execute instructions toeffectuate operation of the learning controller.

The computerized furniture appliance 620 may comprise a motor actuatorconfigured to operate one or more components of the appliance (e.g.,slide a drawer 622, open/close a door/lid, adjust shelve height and/ororientation, and/or perform other actions). It will be appreciated bythose skilled in the arts that although a drawer operation isillustrated in FIG. 6A, various other computerized furnitureimplementations may be realized using the methodology described herein,e.g., adjustable desk, table, chair, outdoor umbrella, swimming pool,and/or other. In one or more implementations, the automation methodologymay be employed with components (doors, windows, fan) of a building, avehicle (car, boat), and/or practically any motorized component that maybe interfaced to a computerized controller.

The apparatus 620 may comprise a receiver component configured to detectremote transmissions 606 in FIG. 6A and/or transmissions 636 in FIG. 6B.The transmissions 606 may comprise one or more remote controlinstructions (e.g., open/close) issued by a remote transmitter (notshown). In one or more implementations, the transmissions 606 may beeffectuated based on an operation of the remote transmitter by a userand/or a computerized agent during training of the controller apparatus610.

The sensor component 602 may be configured to provide sensory input tothe learning controller. In some implementations, the component 602 maycomprise a camera, a radio wave sensor, a light sensor, an ultrasonicsensor, and/or other sensor capable of providing information related tooperation of the appliance apparatus 620.

An exemplary training operation of the system 600 comprising a camerasensor component 602 may be described as follows, in someimplementations.

The appliance 620 and the camera component 602 may be arranged such thatto enable the camera to obtain digital images of the appliance and theuser with sufficient spatial and/or temporal resolution. In one or moreimplementations, spatial resolution may be characterized by image sizeselected between 60×80 pixels to 2000×4000 pixels. Greater image pixelcount may be employed provided computational and/or energy usecapabilities of the processing electronic may accommodate increasedpixel count. In some implementations of home and/or vehicle automation,temporal resolution may be characterized by frame rate selected between2 frames per second (fps) and 100 fps. It will be appreciated by thoseskilled in the arts that lower or greater frame rates may be employed inaccordance with parameters of a specific application (e.g., rate ofchange of context) may utilize a remote controller

The user may employ a remote control device in order to communicateinstructions to the apparatus 620 via, e.g., transmissions 606. In oneor more implementations, the transmissions 606 may comprise infraredwaves, pressure waves, radio waves, visible light, and/or combinationthereof. The appliance apparatus 620 may comprise a detector componentconfigured consistent with the transmission carrier used to communicatetransmissions 606.

In one or more implementations, the transmissions 606 may compriseinfrared waves, pressure waves, radio waves, visible light, and/orcombination thereof. The apparatus 620 and 610 may comprise a detectorcomponent configured consistent with the transmission carrier used tocommunicate transmissions 606.

The user may utilize posture (denoted by icons 614, 644 in FIGS. 6A-6B)and/or gesture in order to control the appliance 620. By way of anillustration, during training the user may issue DRAWER OPEN command viatransmissions 606 while leaning towards the appliance 620. Thecontroller 610 may detect change in user posture and associate contentof the transmission with the posture change. Combination of the contextchange (e.g., leaning towards 614) and the command (e.g., DRAWER OPEN)may be repeated during training in order to establish the context-actionassociations by adapting learning configuration of the apparatus 610.

During operation, the apparatus 640 may detect sensory context change.By way of an illustration, the apparatus 640 may determine user positionchange from a lean-in posture (depicted by icon 614 in FIG. 6A) to anupright posture (depicted by icon 634 in FIG. 6B). The process of theapparatus 640 may assess as to whether (i) the observed context change(e.g., from inclined posture to upright posture) has previouslyoccurred; and/or (ii) an association between the context change and anaction for that context change exists. Based on determining an existingassociation, the control process may access an instruction associatedwith the action and communicate the instruction. In someimplementations, wherein the controller apparatus 640 may be configuredto communicate directly to the apparatus 620, the instruction 636 maycomprise, e.g., a remote command configured to cause the drawer closeaction 644 in FIG. 6B. Upon receipt of the instruction, the apparatus620 may execute drawer CLOSE action, as illustrated by arrow 644 in FIG.6B.

FIGS. 7A-7B illustrate operation of a computerized apparatus by alearning system using context-action associations, according to one ormore implementations. System 700 shown in FIG. 7A may comprise acomputerized apparatus 720 and a learning controller apparatus 710. Inone or more implementations, the computerized apparatus 720 may comprisean appliance (e.g., a drawer, a light, a fan, audio/video equipment,and/or other controllable apparatus). In some implementations, thecontroller apparatus 710 may comprise a specialized computerizedapparatus (e.g., bStem™ integrated platform described above), and/or ageneral use computerized apparatus (e.g., a tablet, a smartphone, acomputer, and/or other computerized device) configured to execute aplurality of computer instructions configured to operate a learningprocess of the apparatus 710.

The controller apparatus 710 may comprise a sensor component. In one ormore implementations, the sensor component may comprise a camera sensor712 (described above with respect to FIGS. 2A, 2B, 3B, 6A) configured toprovide a sequence of images of the user 704, operating environment(e.g., user premises) and/or the apparatus 720. In some implementations,the controller apparatus 710 may comprise a user interface (e.g., touchscreen described above with respect to FIGS. 3A-3B) configured to enablethe user to provide instructions (depicted by arrow 706) during trainingand/or operation of the system 700.

The controller apparatus 710 may comprise a data communicationsinterface configured to communicate instruction (depicted by arrow 736)related to operation of the apparatus 720. In one or moreimplementations, the communications interface may comprise a wirelessinterface utilizing one or more of e.g., radio frequency (RF), infrared(IR), pressure (sound), light, and/or other carrier waves. In someimplementations, (e.g., such as described above with respect to FIG. 3D,the communications interface may comprise a wired interface (e.g.,serial bus, Ethernet, 2-wire and/or other applicable interface capableof communicating data).

In some implementations, the transmissions 736 may be detected by theapparatus 720 (e.g., a receiver embodied within the appliance). In oneor more implementations (e.g., such as described above with respect toFIG. 3D), the transmissions 736 may be detected by another device (e.g.,a home automation controller component and/or the controller component362 in FIG. 3D) not shown in FIG. 7A. The automation controllercomponent may be provided, e.g., by a user and/or home automationprovider and configured to interface to one or more controlled devices(e.g., 720) via a wired and/or wireless link.

The system 700 may be employed by a user (depicted by icon 704 in FIG.7A) in order to train the controller apparatus 710 to operate thecomputerized apparatus 720 (e.g., turn on/off light, open/close drawer,mute an audio device, and/or perform other action). An exemplarytraining operation may be performed as follows:

The user may alter sensory context and provide an indication of anaction. In one or more implementations, the context change may comprisea user gesture, posture change (e.g., lean towards the appliance 720), asound, an audible signal (click, clap), and/or other indication. Thecontroller apparatus 710 may detect the context change using the sensorcomponent (e.g., a camera of a smartphone). In some implementations, thecontext change may be detected using pixel wise discrepancy estimationmethodology. e.g., such as described below with respect to FIG. CC. Inone or more implementations, the action indication may compriseactivation of a remote controller device (e.g., pressing left/rightbutton on an RF/IR remote controller), activation of a GUI element(e.g., pressing a soft button on the phone touch screen), physicallycausing the desired movement of the device if it has back-driven motorfeedback (e.g., opening a drawer and/or a curtain) and/or performingother action. In some implementations, wherein the action indication maybe communicated by the user via the remote controller, the apparatus 710may comprise a receiver component configured of detect signaltransmissions of appropriate type (e.g., RF/IR).

The user may repeat several times the combination of the contextchange/action indication. The apparatus 710 may operate a learningprocess configured to associate the action indication with the contextchange using any applicable methodology (e.g., a perceptron artificialneuron network, a LUT, a classifier, a K-nearest neighbors (K-NN)algorithm and/or other approach).

The learning process may be configured to associate the actionindication with an action by the apparatus 720. By way of anillustration, the button press (associated with the transmission 706)may be configured to cause drawer opening of the furniture appliance. Insome implementations, wherein the transmission 706 comprises an RF/IRtransmission effectuated by a remote control device associated with theappliance, the appliance may detect the transmission (e.g., usingreceiver component embodied therewith) and perform respective action(e.g., open the drawer).

In some implementations (e.g., such as shown and described with respectto FIG. 2A), the transmission 706 may cause the controller 710 totransmit a command to the apparatus 720 using an appropriatecommunication interface.

In one or more implementations, the controller may be configured (priorto training or subsequent to training) to training to storeaction-indication associations (mapping). By way of an illustration, auser may utilize methodology described above with respect to FIGS.3A-3B, and/or FIGS. 5A-5B in order to map an action indication (e.g.,506 in FIG. 5A) with an action (e.g., open drawer 526) by an appliance(e.g., night stand 526).

Based on the detection action indication (e.g., using transmission 706)and the action indication-action mapping, the controller apparatus 710may communicate a respective command for the apparatus 720 (eitherdirectly or via a home automation controller).

In some implementations wherein operation of the controlled device maycomprise physical manifestations (e.g., drawer opening/closing) that mayinterfere with the context determination (e.g., user posture detection),the controller apparatus 710 may be configured not to relay the commandto the apparatus 720 so as to reduce potential for interference with thecontext determination process.

FIG. 7B illustrates operation of a computerized apparatus 720 of FIG. 7Aby a trained controller apparatus, according to one or moreimplementations. The apparatus 740 of the system 730 in FIG. 7B maycomprise the apparatus 710 of FIG. 7A. The apparatus 740 may operate acontrol process configured based on the training described above withrespect to FIG. 7A. In one or more implementations, the control processconfiguration may comprise loading of a learning process configuration(e.g., an array of network weights, a LUT). The control process of theapparatus 740 may be operable to determine context based on analysis ofsensory data. In some implementations of video camera sensor, theapparatus 740 may be configured to determine user gestures and/or posechanges using pixel-wise discrepancy analysis between images in asequence. By way of an illustration, the apparatus 740 may determineuser position change from a lean-in posture (depicted by icon 704 inFIG. 7A) to an upright posture (depicted by icon 734 in FIG. 7B). Thecontrol process of the apparatus 740 may assess as to whether (i) theobserved context change (e.g., from inclined posture 704 to uprightposture 734) has previously occurred; and/or (ii) an association betweenthe context change and an action for that context change exists. Basedon determining an existing association, the control process may accessan instruction associated with the action and communicate theinstruction. In some implementations, wherein the controller apparatus740 may be configured to communicate directly to the apparatus 720, theinstruction 736 may comprise, e.g., a command configured to cause thedrawer close action 744 in FIG. 7B. Upon receipt of the instruction, theapparatus 720 may execute drawer CLOSE action, as illustrated by arrow744 in FIG. 7B.

In one or more implementations, wherein the controller apparatus 740 maybe configured to communicate with an intermediary device (e.g., a homeautomation controller, an appliance controller, a protocol converter,and/or other apparatus and/or software process) the instruction 736 maycomprise, e.g., a message comprising the appliance identification (e.g.,NIGHT_STAND) and the action (e.g., CLOSE) communicated to, e.g., thehome automation controller. Upon receipt of the instruction, theintermediate entity (e.g., home automation controller (e.g., thecomponent 362 in FIG. 3D) may provide a respective command to theappliance apparatus (e.g., 364 in FIG. 3D) to execute the action.

FIGS. 8A-8B illustrate operation of a computerized light fixture by alearning system configured to determine user gestures usingcontext-action associations, according to one or more implementations.

System 800 shown in FIG. 8A may comprise a computerized apparatus 804and a learning controller apparatus 810. In one or more implementations,the computerized apparatus 804 may comprise an appliance (e.g., adrawer, a remote controlled light, a fan, audio/video equipment, and/orother controllable apparatus). In some implementations, the controllerapparatus 810 may comprise a specialized computerized apparatus (e.g.,bStem™ integrated platform described above), and/or a general usecomputerized apparatus (e.g., a tablet, a smartphone, a computer, and/orother computerized device) configured to execute a plurality of computerinstructions configured to operate a learning process of the apparatus810.

In one or more implementations, the apparatus 810 may comprise userpremises equipment (e.g., a security camera) adapted to execute thelearning process instructions. The controller apparatus 810 may comprisea sensor component, e.g., a camera described above with respect to FIGS.2A, 2B, 3B, 6A, 7A) configured to provide a sequence of images of userpremises and/or the apparatus 804. In some implementations, thecontroller apparatus 810 may be coupled to a user interface device(e.g., a smartphone, a tablet, a computer, and/or other device)configured to enable the user to provide instructions (depicted by arrow806) during training and/or operation of the system 800.

The system 800 may be employed by a user in order to train thecontroller apparatus 810 to operate the computerized apparatus 804(e.g., turn on/off light) based on occurrence of a context change. Inone exemplary implementation, the user may employ the system 800 toactivate the apparatus 804 (turn on the light) responsive to opening ofa book. An exemplary training operation may be performed as follows:

The user may alter sensory context and provide an indication of anaction. In one or more implementations, the context change may compriseopening of a book 802. In one or more implementations, context (e.g.,book opening) may be configured based on a distance (e.g., 0.5 m to 3 m)between the book and the controlled apparatus (e.g., the lamp 804)and/or location of the book being opened. By way of an illustration ofoperating a trained controller in a library environment, a user openinga book at or near a work desk may trigger the desk lamp, while anotheruser browsing (opening) books near a bookshelf may not trigger the desklamp. The controller apparatus 810 may detect the context change usingthe sensor component. In some implementations, the context change may bedetected using pixel-wise discrepancy estimation methodology, e.g., suchas described below with respect to FIGS. 15 and/or 17A-17C. In one ormore implementations, the action indication may comprise activation of aremote controller device (e.g., pressing left/right button on an RF/IRremote controller), activation of a GUI element (e.g., pressing a softbutton on the phone touch screen), physically turning on/off a device,physically moving the device in the case of back-driven motors and/oraccelerometers and/or gyroscopes, and/or other action. In someimplementations, wherein the action indication may be communicated bythe user via the remote controller, the apparatus 810 may comprise areceiver component configured of detect signal transmissions ofappropriate type (e.g., RF/IR).

The user may repeat several times the combination of the contextchange/action indication. The apparatus 810 may operate a learningprocess configured to associate the action indication with the contextchange using any applicable methodology (e.g., a perceptron artificialneuron network, a LUT, a classifier, a K-NN process, and/or otherapproach).

The learning process may be configured to associate the actionindication with an action by the apparatus 804 using any applicablemethodology described herein including, e.g., FIGS. 5A-5B and/or FIGS.7A-7B. Based on the training, the learning process may produce anassociation between detecting opening of the book 802 and transmissionof a LIGHT ON command.

FIG. 8B illustrates operation of a computerized apparatus 820 of FIG. 8Aby a trained controller apparatus, according to one or moreimplementations. The apparatus 840 of the system 830 in FIG. 8B maycomprise the apparatus 810 of FIG. 8A. The apparatus 840 may operate acontrol process configured based on the training described above withrespect to FIG. 8A. In one or more implementations, the control processconfiguration may comprise loading of a learning process configuration(e.g., an array of network weights, a LUT). The control process of theapparatus 840 may be operable to determine context based on analysis ofsensory data. In some implementations of video camera sensor, theapparatus 840 may be configured to determine context change usingpixel-wise discrepancy analysis between images in a sequence. By way ofan illustration, the apparatus 840 may detect opening of a book depictedby icon 832 FIG. 8B). The control process of the apparatus 840 mayassess as to whether (i) the observed context change (e.g., the book isin open state 832) has occurred; and/or (ii) an association between thecontext change and an action for that context change exists. Based ondetermining an existing association, the control process may access aninstruction associated with the action and communicate the instruction.In some implementations, wherein the controller apparatus 840 may beconfigured to communicate directly to the apparatus 834, the instruction836 may comprise, e.g., a command configured to cause turning ON of thelight 834.

In one or more implementations, wherein the controller apparatus 840 maybe configured to communicate with an intermediary device (e.g., a homeautomation controller, an appliance controller, a protocol converter,and/or other apparatus and/or software process) the instruction 836 maycomprise, e.g., a message comprising the appliance identification (e.g.,NIGHT_LAMP) and the action (e.g., ON) communicated to, e.g., the homeautomation controller. Upon receipt of the instruction, the intermediateentity (e.g., home automation controller (e.g., the component 362 inFIG. 3D) may provide a respective command to the appliance apparatus(e.g., 364 in FIG. 3D) to execute the action.

Methodology described herein may be utilized in home automationapplications. FIG. 9 illustrates a system comprising a learningcontroller configured to automate operation of home entertainmentappliance (e.g., a TV), according to one or more implementations. Thesystem 900 may comprise a television (TV) set 916 operable via a remotecontrol device 904 configured to transmit one or more commands 906 to,e.g., change channels of, the TV 916. In some implementations, theremote control device may comprise a dedicated TV controller, auniversal remote controller (e.g., Harmony®), a portable user interfacedevice (e.g., a tablet, a smartphone), and/or other device. The system900 may comprise a learning apparatus 910 configured to determine anassociation between sensory context and the one or more commands 902. Inone or more implementations, the learning apparatus may be embodiedwithin the appliance 916. In some implementations, the learningapparatus may comprise a plurality of instructions (e.g., a downloadedapp, and/or instructions executed from other computer readable medium(e.g., an SD card, a flash drive and/or other medium).

The appliance apparatus may comprise a camera 920 configured to providesensory input related to environment within the room containing theappliance 916 to the learning process of the apparatus 910. The camera920 may be characterized by field of view 914. Images provided by thecamera 920 may be utilized by the learning process to determine changesin the context associated with the environment within the view field914. In some implementations context change determination may beeffectuated using other data e.g., time of day/year, day of the week,weather, daylight, sound, user(s) content preferences, state of otherequipment within the premises (e.g., receiver ON state), and/or otherinformation associated with user premises.

In some implementations, the context information may comprise number,position and/or posture of users. By way of an illustration, a singleuser watching a movie may elect to suspend (pause) the playback in orderto get a drink and/or attend to an issue outside the room. Pause commandissued by the user via the handset 904 may correspond to the followingcontext data: a single user getting up. In one or more implementations,the context may be based on information related to presence of a personobstructing view of TV screen.

In some implementations, the context may comprise information related toweather, time of day, day of the week and/or year, number of people inthe room, identity of a person (e.g., a male adult versus a child),content being displayed, and/or other information. A given context maybe associated with a respective control command(s) produced by theapparatus 910. For example, context comprising representation of a maleadult user may cause commands to switch the TV to a sports channel whilea representation of a child may correspond to a command to switch the TVto a cartoon channel. In some implementations of multi-screen videoprojection devices (e.g., virtual and/or physical multi-screen TV,tablets, and/or computer monitors), users may configure content forindividual screens depending on time of day, day of week, weather, andor other parameters (e.g., occurrence of a sports and/or culturalevent). In some implementations, the content may be configured based onpresence and/or absence of one or more objects in a room: e.g., presenceof a toy (e.g., from a Toy Story cartoon) character in the room maycause selection of a Disney channel and/or related TV channel.

In some implementations, the context may comprise user uses gesturesthat may be provided via Microsoft Kinect and/or other visual motion andposition detection system. In one or more implementations, a user mayutilize language commands that may be converted into some representation(e.g., a hash, a voiceprint), and used as a sensory context. Individualwords of language commands (spoken language tags) may have a meaningassociated therewith, and/or may be meaningless (in a given language)provided the spoken language tags consistently accompany a given actionby the robotic device.

The context information (e.g., context change) may be associated withone or more actions by the apparatus 910. The association may be basedon operation of a neuron network (e.g., effectuating a perceptron), alook up table and/or other classification approach, e.g., look up table.

In some implementations, a perceptron may comprise ANN networkcomprising one or more output artificial neuron connected to a pluralityof input artificial neurons via an array (layer) of efficacies.Efficacies of the connecting layer may be adapted using e.g.,correlative and/or error-based gradient descent learning process inorder attain target output. Individual neurons may be operable inaccordance with an arctangent, sigmoid, and/or other output generatingprocess. The output neuron(s) may compete with one another in a softmaxwinner-take-all process to produce a given output.

In some implementations of controlling a digital video recorder/playbackapparatus (e.g., TiVo®) coupled to a TV (e.g., via output 908 in FIG.9), the network output may comprise four neurons configured to provide arespective output signal (e.g., PLAY, PAUSE, SLOW MOTION, and DONOTHING). The network input may comprise 80×60 change-detection unitswith connections to individual output neurons.

In some implementations wherein the learning apparatus 910 may beconfigured to control other devices, additional output units may beutilized and/or additional perceptron components may be employed.

Various other implementations of predictor/classifier learning processmay be employed, such as, e.g., a multilayer perceptron (with a hiddenlayer), a K-NN predictor, or other classifier/predictors.

In one or more implementations, the action may comprise an operationexecuted by the appliance 916 (e.g., volume, channel, playbackadjustment) and/or operations by one or more devices in communicationwith the appliance via interface 908. By way of an illustration, theaction may comprise a pause command issued to an externalplayback/record device.

In one or more implementations, e.g., such as described above withrespect to FIGS. 3A-3B, the context change may be associated with anevent and/or command. The event (e.g., a button press on a userinterface device) may be linked to the action by the appliance using,e.g., a graphical user interface methodology described with respect toFIGS. 5A-5B, and/or other applicable methodology.

In some implementations, e.g., such as described in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/244,888 entitled “LEARNING APPARATUS AND METHODSFOR CONTROL OF ROBOTIC DEVICES VIA SPOOFING”, filed Apr. 3, 2014; Ser.No. 14/244,892 entitled “SPOOFING REMOTE CONTROL APPARATUS AND METHODS”,filed Apr. 3, 2014; Ser. No. 14/244,890 entitled “APPARATUS AND METHODSFOR REMOTELY CONTROLLING ROBOTIC DEVICES”, filed Apr. 3, 2014, each ofthe foregoing previously incorporated herein by reference in theirentirety supra, the context change may be associated with an action bythe appliance 916 using remote control device 904.

In some implementations, user voice commands may be combined with useractions via a remote control (e.g., in FIG. 9) in order to provideadditional disambiguating sensory context for association development.By way of an illustration, a user may say “gromche” and press TV remote“VOLUME UP” button; a user may say “tishe” and press TV remote VOLUMEDOWN button. Upon developing the associations, the user may utilizevoice commands (e.g., ‘gromche’, tishe’, and/or other voice commandsthat may or may not have a meaning in English) in order to control theTV 916 without the remote controller. In some implementations, duringoperation of the trained controller, the recognition of the voicecommands as part of the same sensory context may be configured based oncommand(s) being spoken by the same person who produced the commandsduring training. In one or more implementations, the command recognitionmay be configured based on trainer's speech characteristics (e.g.,pitch, intonation, rate of speaking, and/or other characteristics).

The apparatus 910 may be configured to provide control instructions viadata link 908 to one or more home appliances disposed remote from theapparatus 916. In one or more implementations, the data link 908 maycomprise a wireless (e.g., Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 3G-4G cellular, and/orwired link (e.g., serial, Ethernet and/or other link implementation).

Subsequent to learning the associations, upon detecting occurrence of agiven context, the apparatus 910 may issue control instructions to theappliance apparatus 916 that may be associated with the detectedcontext. For example, upon detecting that the user stood up (usingsensory input from the camera 920) the apparatus 910 may issue commandsto the apparatus 916 to pause content playback; upon detecting an adultuser in the room at 6 pm during a week day the apparatus 910 may issuecommands to display one or more news stations on one or more screens ofthe apparatus 916; upon detecting a change in weather (using e.g., anews feed, wired and/or wireless sensor component) the apparatus 910 mayissue instructions to a remote window actuator via link 908 to closewindow, and/or instructions to an irrigation controller to suspendwatering. It will be recognized by those skilled in the arts that thelearning controller 910 may be employed to learn to operate other homeappliances, such as, e.g., HVAC system, fan, heater, humidifier, soundsystem, security system, furniture, assisted living devices (e.g.,motorized bed), and/or other controllable devices.

FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram detailing components of a learningapparatus (e.g., apparatus 100 of FIG. 1A, 200 of FIG. 2A. 410 of FIG.4) in accordance with one implementation. The learning apparatus 1000may comprise a memory component 1012 configured to store a learningconfiguration. In one or more implementations, the learningconfiguration may comprise an array of efficacies of an artificialneuron network and/or contents of a look up table. Additional memory1014 and processing capacity 1016 is available for otherhardware/firmware/software needs of the apparatus. The processingcomponent 1016 may interface to the sensory component 1020 in order toobtain and process sensory data for, e.g., object detection, facetracking, stereo vision, and/or other tasks.

The processing component may interface with the mechanical 1018, sensory1020, electrical 1022, power 1024, and user interface 1018 componentsvia driver interfaces and/or software abstraction layers. Additionalprocessing and memory capacity may be used to support these processes.It will be appreciated that these components may be fully controlled bythe robotic brain. The memory and processing capacity may aid inmanagement of learning configuration (e.g., loading, replacement),operations during a startup, and/or other operations. Consistent withthe present disclosure, the various components of the device may beremotely disposed from one another, and/or aggregated. For example, thelearning configuration may be executed on a server apparatus, andcontrol the mechanical components via network or radio connection whilememory or storage capacity may be integrated into the brain. Multiplemechanical, sensory, or electrical units may be controlled be a learningapparatus via network/radio connectivity.

The mechanical components 1018 may include virtually any type of devicecapable of motion or performance of a desired function or task. Thesemay include, without limitation, motors, servos, pumps, hydraulics,pneumatics, stepper motors, rotational plates, micro-electro-mechanicaldevices (MEMS), electroactive polymers, and/or other mechanicalcomponents.

The user interface components 1018 may comprise virtually any type ofdevice capable of registering inputs from and/or communicating outputsto a user. These may include, without limitation, display, touch,proximity sensitive interface, light, sound receiving/emitting devices,wired/wireless input devices and/or other devices.

The sensory devices 1020 may enable the learning apparatus to acceptsensory input from external entities. These may include, withoutlimitation, video, audio, capacitive, radio, vibrational, ultrasonic,infrared, and temperature sensors radar, lidar and/or sonar, and/orother sensory devices.

The electrical components 1022 may include virtually any electricaldevice for interaction and manipulation of the outside world. This mayinclude, without limitation, light/radiation generating devices (e.g.LEDs, IR sources, light bulbs, and/or other devices), audio devices,monitors/displays, switches, heaters, coolers, ultrasound transducers,lasers, and/or other electrical components. These devices may enable awide array of applications for the robotic apparatus in industrial,hobbyist, building management, medical device, military/intelligence,and other fields (as discussed below).

The communications interface 1026 may include one or more connections toexternal computerized devices to allow for, inter alia, management ofthe robotic device. e.g., as described above with respect to FIG. 3Dand/or with respect to FIG. 4. The connections may include any of thewireless or wireline interfaces discussed above, and further may includecustomized or proprietary connections for specific applications. In someimplementations, the communications interface 1026 may comprise acomponent (e.g., a dongle), comprising an infrared sensor, a radiofrequency antenna, ultrasonic transducer, and/or other communicationsinterfaces. In one or more implementation, the communications interfacemay comprise a local (e.g., Bluetooth, Wi-Fi) and/or broad range (e.g.,cellular LTE) communications interface configured to enablecommunications between the learning controller apparatus (e.g., 410 inFIG. 4) and a remote computing entity (e.g., 406, 404 in FIG. 4).

The power system 1024 may be tailored to the needs of the application ofthe device. For example, for a small-sized lower power appliance, awireless power solution (e.g. battery, solar cell, inductive(contactless) power source, rectification, and/or other) may beappropriate. For building management applications, battery backup/directwall power may be superior. In addition, in some implementations, thepower system may be adaptable with respect to the training of theappliance apparatus (e.g., 720 in FIG. 7A). The training may improveoperational efficiency of the appliance (to include power consumptionefficiency) through learned management techniques specifically tailoredto the tasks performed by the appliance apparatus.

FIG. 16 illustrates exemplary control command codes for a plurality ofselected remote controlled devices, according to one or moreimplementations. The data in FIG. 16 represents duration inmicroseconds. In some implementations, the duration may correspond toduration between pulses used to encode data in using pulse positionmodulation methodology. In one or more implementations of pulse widthmodulation, the duration in FIG. 16 may correspond to pulse duration. Insome implementations, of infrared remote controllers, the codes shown inFIG. 16 may be used with infrared carrier wave of wavelength at around870 nm and/or selected between 930 nm and 950 nm. Modulation carrier maybe selected between 33 kHz and 40 kHz and/or between 50 kHz and 60 kHz.In some implementations, one or more robotic devices may support aplurality of control channels” (channel a, channel b, shown in lines 44and 52 of FIG. 16). Such configuration may allow multiple of the sametype of robot to be configured and controlled simultaneously. In someimplementations, codes may be combined (e.g., using XOR operation).

FIGS. 11A-15 illustrate methods of training and operating a learningcontroller apparatus of the disclosure in accordance with one or moreimplementations. The operations of methods 1100, 1120, 1200, 1220, 1240,1300, 1400, 1500 presented below are intended to be illustrative. Insome implementations, methods 1100, 1120, 1200, 1220, 1240, 1300, 1400,1500 may be accomplished with one or more additional operations notdescribed, and/or without one or more of the operations discussed.Additionally, the order in which the operations of methods 1100, 1120,1200, 1220, 1240, 1300, 1400, 1500 are illustrated in FIGS. 11A-15described below is not intended to be limiting.

In some implementations, methods 1100, 1120, 1200, 1220, 1240, 1300,1400, 1500 may be implemented in one or more processing devices (e.g., adigital processor, an analog processor, a digital circuit designed toprocess information, an analog circuit designed to process information,a state machine, and/or other mechanisms for electronically processinginformation and/or execute computer program components). The one or moreprocessing devices may include one or more devices executing some or allof the operations of methods 1100, 1120, 1200, 1220, 1240, 1300, 1400,1500 in response to instructions stored electronically on an electronicstorage medium. The one or more processing devices may include one ormore devices configured through hardware, firmware, and/or software tobe specifically designed for execution of one or more of the operationsof methods 600, 700, 800, 820, 840, 900. The operations of methods 1100,1120, 1200, 1220, 1240, 1300, 1400, 1500 may be implemented by alearning controller apparatus (e.g., 110 in FIG. 1A) configured tocontrol a computerized appliance apparatus (e.g., 220 in FIG. 2A. 720 inFIG. 7B, and/or 916 in FIG. 9).

FIG. 11A illustrates a method of determining an association between acontrol instruction for an appliance apparatus and sensory context, inaccordance with one or more implementations.

At operation 1102 of method 1100, illustrated in FIG. 11A remotetransmissions comprising control instructions for the applianceapparatus may be detected. In one or more implementations, thetransmissions may comprise infrared light wave and/or radio wave pulsesproduced by a remote control device (e.g., 202 in FIG. 2A, 904 in FIG.9). The control instructions may comprise one or more commands to theapparatus device to perform one or more actions (e.g., POWER ON).

At operation 1104 sensory input conveying context associated withenvironment of the apparatus and occurring contemporaneous with thetransmissions may be analyzed. In one or more implementations, such asgesture recognition, the sensory input may be provided by a sensorcomponent of the learning controller (e.g., camera 352 of the apparatus360 in FIG. 3B) and may comprise a stream of pixel values associatedwith one or more digital images. In one or more implementations of e.g.,video, radar, sonography, x-ray, magnetic resonance imaging, and/orother types of sensing, the input may comprise electromagnetic waves(e.g., visible light, IR, UV, and/or other types of electromagneticwaves) entering an imaging sensor array. In some implementations, theimaging sensor array may comprise one or more of RGCs, a charge coupleddevice (CCD), an active-pixel sensor (APS), and/or other sensors. Theinput signal may comprise a sequence of images and/or image frames. Thesequence of images and/or image frame may be received from a CCD cameravia a receiver apparatus and/or downloaded from a file. The image maycomprise a two-dimensional matrix of RGB values refreshed at a ratebetween 2 and 100 fps. It will be appreciated by those skilled in thearts that the above image parameters are merely exemplary, and manyother image representations (e.g., bitmap, CMYK, HSV, HSL, grayscale,and/or other representations) and/or frame rates are equally useful withthe present disclosure. In one or more implementations, the sensoryaspects may include location of user body, head, and/or limb position,orientation, and/or configuration, an object being detected in theinput, a location of the object, an object characteristic (color/shape),characteristic of object movements (e.g., limb motion), a characteristicof an environment (e.g., amount of daylight, ambient temperature, timeof day, and/or other information).

In some implementations, the context determination may be configuredbased on detection of a sudden change (e.g., within a time windowselected between 1 seconds and 10 seconds) of a given sensorycharacteristic (e.g., image pixel change in color, brightness, localcontrast, local binary pattern, sound level, and/or other parameter). Inone or more implementations, e.g., such as described with respect toFIG. 15 and/or FIGS. 17A-17D, the context detection may be configuredbased on a comparison of current sensory input characteristic andreference sensory input characteristic. In some implementations of imageprocessing, the reference sensory input characteristic may be configuredbased on a reference frame depicting initial (background) state of theenvironment (e.g., an image of a room without users and/or image of theuser in upright position (e.g., 534 in FIG. 5A). That is, the learningprocess may be configured to periodically acquire a reference image of aroom (I0) and process the differences between the image I0 and a currentimage I1.

Advantageously, such configuration may enable continuing functioning ofthe learning controller when relocated (e.g., rotated or translated), asthe previously acquired (reference) image of the environment may beutilized in order to be used to compensate for the relocation and priorlearned associations to continue to function as desired/expected by theuser. By way of an illustration of a learning controller embodied in alight fixture (e.g., 610 of FIG. 6A, and/or 810 of FIG. 8A) thecontroller apparatus may be removed for maintenance/repairs (e.g.,clean/replace the lens). When reinstalled, the lens field of view maynot match with sufficient precision (e.g., to within 10-20 pixels).Field of view (FOV) mapping techniques may be applied to correct formismatch between field of view of the lens user in training and field ofview of lens subsequent to repairs/maintenance. In one or moreimplementations, the FOV mapping may be utilized to correct for mismatchbetween individual lenses. FOV mapping may enable use of previoustraining results.

In some implementations wherein user privacy may be of concern, thelearning controller may be embodied in a mobile platform (rover). Upon arequest from a user, the rover may enter a given room, acquire imageinput, activate/deactivate one or more appliances, devices, and bedismissed (with image acquisition disabled) if privacy is desired. Thelearning controller may operate a Wi-Fi on/off switch in order toconnect/disconnect the device from the Internet and ensure privacy ofvideo capture.

In one or more implementations, the reference state (the image I0) maybe determined based on an output of a high pass filter of the imagesequence. The filter may comprise an exponential filter operation, e.g.,described with respect to FIG. 15. The decay half life time window ofthe exponential filter may be selected between 1 and 10 seconds. A givenimage may be compared to the reference image in order to determine thecontext. In some implementations, learning the associations may beconfigured to potentiate occurrence of context-action indication pairswherein the action indication may occur in close proximity to thecontext (e.g., 1-2 frames at 10 frames per second video). The filterdecay time window may be configured at 5-10 times the interval betweenthe context and the action indication.

At operation 1106 associations may be developed between the controlinstructions determined at operation 1102 and the corresponding context.In one or more implementations, the associations may be configured basedon one or more LUT characterizing the relationship between sensory input(e.g., user gesture) and the control instruction (e.g., POWER ON)obtained by the learning controller during training.

At operation 1108 the association information may be stored. In someimplementations, the information storing of operation 1108 may comprisestoring one or more entries of a LUT in internal memory of the learningcontroller apparatus (e.g., the memory 1012, 1014 in FIG. 10). In one ormore implementations, the associations may be stored off-device in,e.g., a computer cloud depository 406 of FIG. 4.

In some implementations, it may be of use (e.g., due to a development ofan erroneous association and/or given functionality no longer needed) toenable the learning controller to selectively not to trigger a givenaction (e.g., to selectively not turn on TV) based on occurrence ofcorresponding context (a given person entering a room). In someimplementations, the controller learning process may be trained toselect no-action output with the given context by, e.g., utilizing a GUIelement configured to convey the DO NOTHING or NO ACTION indication. Byway of an illustration, a user may utilize a remote control device(e.g., 202 in FIG. 2A, 904 in FIG. 9 and/or other) in order tocommunicate to the learning controller the NO ACTION indicationcontemporaneous with the occurrence of a given context (e.g., appearanceof a person in field of view of the camera 920). Based on receiving theNO ACTION indication, the learning process may potentiate the respectiveoutput (e.g., by increasing weights of the ANN nodes associated withoutputting NO ACTION or incrementing the respective entry in the LUT).Subsequent to training, the learning controller may be configured not toturn the TV automatically when the person enters the room. This resultmay be obtained through competition (e.g., softmax or otherwinner-take-all mechanism) governing the output of the system.

The learning controller may comprise functionality configured to enableremoval of no longer needed learned associations by“unlearning/‘forgetting’ respective association between the context(e.g., person entering the room) and the action (turn TV ON) whilepreserving other trained associations (e.g., turn lights ON).

In some implementations, the association removal may be effectuatedusing a “remove” GUI element, implemented e.g., by the user interfacedevice 310, 320, and/or 710 of FIGS. 3A, 3B, 7A.

When a given context occurs (e.g., a person entering a room), the usermay activate the respective action (turn TV ON) indication element(e.g., the button 322 of the apparatus 320 in FIG. 3B) and the removeelement (e.g., a touch button). Upon receiving the context, the actionindication (e.g., turn TV OFF) and the remove indication the learningprocess may depress (reduce efficacy of the ANN nodes associated withenabling the TV ON action output) or decrementing the respective entryin the LUT. Subsequent to training of action removal, the learningprocess may selectively not perform the removed action (e.g., not turnthe TV ON). The remaining action associations (e.g., turn lights ON) mayremain unaffected. In some implementations, wherein a substantial amountof background movement and/or sounds may be present during training(e.g., during a party with 7 or more people), multiple repetitions ofcontext-action may be required to obtain a reliable association.

In one or more implementations, a user may be provided with a graphicalinterface configured to enable removal of associations from the learnedconfiguration implemented e.g., by the user interface device 310, 320,and/or 710 of FIGS. 3A, 3B, 7A. The user may be provided with, e.g., alist detailing an action (e.g., turn TV ON, turn LIGHT ON) andinformation identifying the respective context (e.g., a picture of theuser). The GUI may enable the user to selectively remove unwantedassociations. In some implementations, the user may activate “remove”component of the learning process. While in the remove mode, based onoccurrence of a context (e.g., the person entering the room) the usermay be provided with a list of learned associations for this context.

FIG. 11B illustrates a method of suppressing an association between acontrol instruction for an appliance and sensory context, in accordancewith one or more implementations.

At operation 1124 of method 1120 a context may be determined using anyapplicable methodology described herein. In some implementations, thecontext may comprise user posture (e.g., 702 in FIG. 7A), user gesture(e.g., 902 in FIG. 9), a representation of a person entering a room, asound, and/or other sensory information.

At operation 1126 a determination may be made as to whether an unlearnindication present. In some implementations, the unlearn (also referredto as undo) indication may comprise a transmission associated with abutton press of a GUI device. In one or more implementations, theunlearn indication may be configured based on activation of unlearncomponent of a GUI.

Responsive to determination at operation 1126 that the unlearnindication may be present, the method may proceed to operation 1128wherein context-action association corresponding to the context may bedetermined. In some implementation wherein a single action maycorrespond to a given context (e.g., turn TV ON when a given personenters the room), the action determination (e.g., turn TV ON) may bebased on identification of the context determined at operation 1124. Inone or more implementation wherein multiple actions may correspond to agiven context (e.g., turn TV ON and turn light ON when the person entersthe room), action identification may be configured based on one or moreof (i) action indication provided to the learning process (e.g.,activating the button 322 of the apparatus 320 described with respect toFIG. 3B and/or selection of context-action association using the removeGUI component described above.

In some implementations of a LUT-based learning process configured toprovide a plurality of outputs (e.g., in absence of a winner takes allcompetition process) an entry in the LUT associated with the contextdetermined at operation 1124 may be removed, a score corresponding tothe [context+control instruction] combination may be decremented. In oneor more implementations of a neuron network-based learning processconfigured to provide a plurality of outputs (e.g., in absence of awinner takes all competition process), efficacy of connectionsassociated with outputting the instruction determined at operation 1122may be reduced.

In one or more implementations of a LUT-based learning processconfigured to provide a specific output (e.g., using a winner takes allcompetition process) an entry in the LUT associated with a competingaction for the context determined at operation 1124 may be added, ascore corresponding to the [context+competing action] combination may beincremented. In one or more implementations of a neuron network-basedlearning process configured to provide a given outputs (e.g., based on awinner takes all competition process), efficacy of connectionsassociated with outputting the a NULL command may be increased

In one or more implementations, “SEND NOTHING” indication may beutilized. By way of an illustration, a user interface element (e.g.,unlearn button) may be provided to indicate to the learning process toignore a particular input. In some implementations, the unlearn buttonmay be configured to cause the learning process to unlearn sending anyaction, unlearn sending the most recent action and/or another actioncomposition. The unlearn functionality may enable operation of thelearning process to remove false positives cannot be untaught. Thishelps obviate the disadvantage of false positives, erroneous and/or nolonger needed associations and/or other actions.

At operation 1130 learning process may be adapted so as to inhibitexecution of the action corresponding with the context-actionassociation. In some implementations, the inhibition may be configuredbased on potentiation of the NO ACTION output configured to cause thelearning process to activate NO ACTION output based on detection of thecontext. In some implementations, the learning process adaptation maycomprise depression of the output associated with the action by e.g.,reducing efficacy of the ANN nodes associated with enabling the TV ONaction output or decrementing the respective entry in the LUT.

In some implementations, wherein a controlled appliance may be operablein a mode wherein it may expect a command, the NULL association maycause transmission of a NULL command (e.g., a packet with emptypayload). Upon detecting such command/packet, the appliance may take noaction (e.g., the TV controller may continue listening to commandswithout altering its state). In one or more implementations, wherein acontrolled appliance may be operable via a message queue (e.g., respondwhen there is a command, otherwise perform no action), the NO ACTIONassociation may cause no command transmission to the transmission to theappliance. At operation 1132 the adapted configuration of the learningprocess may be stored. In some implementations. e.g., such asillustrated with respect to FIG. 10, the association learning processconfiguration may comprise a LUT stored within a nonvolatile storagemedium of the learning controller apparatus. In one or moreimplementations, e.g., such as illustrated with respect to FIG. 4, thelearning process configuration may be on a nonvolatile storage mediumdisposed outside of the learning controller apparatus (e.g., within acomputing Cloud, and/or other storage device).

Operations of method 1120 may be used to implement “undo” functionality.In some implementations, upon receiving the undo indication the learningprocess may be operable to unlearn (e.g., suppress) the most recentlylearned context-action association (remove learned “robotic behavior”).In one or more implementations, the undo indication may cause removal oflearned behaviors/associations during a given period of time. Specificassociations may be indicated to the learning process by providing therelevant context (e.g., gesture). By way of an illustration, uponrealizing that the controller learned an erroneous association causingan undesired behavior of an appliance (e.g., pausing video playbackwhenever one user may raise an arm while stretching) the user may issuethe undo indication. Subsequently, during a given interval, the user mayraise an arm to provide the context. The learning process may determineone or more actions (commands) that may be associated with that context(e.g., user gesture of raising an arm). The most recent action from theone or more of the actions associated with that context may besuppressed (removed) using methodology described herein. In one or moreimplementations, all actions associated with that context may besuppressed (removed).

The interval during which context for unlearning associations may beprovided may be selected between 1 s and 300 s. In some implementations,the interval may be selected arbitrarily long (e.g., until another undoindication may be provided to indicate end of the undo interval). In oneor more implementations, the interval may be configured based on anamount of ambient sensory input that may have been analyzed duringcontext detection during training. For example, in some implementations,wherein during training, a substantial amount of background movementand/or sounds may have been present (e.g., during a party with 7 or morepeople), undo interval may be increased commensurate with the durationof the training. FIG. 12A illustrates a method of assigning a tag to acontext determined in sensory input during training, in accordance withone or more implementations. Operations of method 1200 may be performedduring training of a learning process of a controller apparatus of,e.g., 210 in FIG. 2A. 310 in FIG. 3B, 910 in FIG. 9.

At operation 1202, context may be determined. In some implementations,the context determination may be configured based on analysis of sensoryinput. In some implementations, the sensory input may comprise videoimage sequence and/or audio signal. Analysis may comprise. e.g.,operations described with respect to FIGS. 15 and/or 17A-17D.

At operation 1204 user indication associated with the context ofoperation 1202 may be detected. In one or more implementations, theindication may comprise activation of a user interface element (e.g.,GUI button 312, 314 in FIG. 3A, and/or remote controller 202 in FIG.2A). By way of an illustration, during training of a learning process ofthe controller 610 of FIG. 6A, a user may alter their posture (e.g.,lean in towards a night table appliance 620) and communicate a remotecontrol command via the transmission 606. In the implementation shownand described with respect to FIG. 3A, the user may provide a gestureand press a button using the user interface device 310.

In some implementations of training, the user indication may be providedcontemporaneously (e.g., within one-2 seconds) with the context (e.g.,the user uses one arm to produce a gesture and another hand to press abutton on a user interface device). In some implementations, differentphysical users (referred colloquially as the user) may cooperate toprovide the context (e.g., a gesture) and the indication (e.g., thebutton press). In some implementations, different physical users(referred colloquially as the user) may cooperate to provide the context(e.g., a gesture) and the indication (e.g., the button press). The userindication may closely follow the context and/or context change. In oneor more implementations (e.g., described with respect to Eqn. 1) whereinthe reference sensory input may comprise output of a filtercharacterized by a time constant T_(f), the user indication may followthe context within the window duration. During operation of the trainedcontroller, the action (e.g., command transmission 216 in FIG. 2A) maybe triggered (without a delay) based occurrence of the respectivecontext.

At operation 1206 a determination may be made as to whether anassociation between the context and the indication may exist. In someimplementations of the learning process configured based on use of aLUT, a row or a column element of the LUT corresponding to the contextmay be accessed in order to determine as to whether the given contexthas previously occurred. An entry (e.g., a cell) of the selectedrow/column LUT element may be accessed in order to determine as towhether the given indication has previously occurred for the givencontext.

Responsive to the determination at operation 1206 that the associationmay exist, the method may proceed to operation 1208 wherein a tag may beproduced. The tag may be used to convey the existence and/oridentification of the association between the context and theindication.

FIG. 12B illustrates a method of assigning a set of machine instructionsfor a given tag determined by method of FIG. 12A for operating anappliance apparatus, in accordance with one or more implementations. Inone or more implementations, operations of method may be effectuatedusing a GUI rendered by a computerized device, e.g., such as describedwith respect to FIGS. 5A-5B.

At operation 1222 one or more tags may be retrieved. In someimplementations, the tag retrieval may comprise presentation of the oneor more tags (e.g., EventIDs) by a graphical user interface, e.g., theevent list 501 comprising tags 502, 504, 506, that may have beenassociated previously (e.g., the events produced by pressings of buttons313, 315 in FIG. 3C) with user indications during training describedabove with respect to FIGS. 3A-3C.

At operation 1224 a set of instructions may be provided for a given tag.In some implementations, the instructions may be provided by specifyingan appliance and a respective command for the appliance, (e.g., DVDplayer 555 and play command 544 in FIG. 5B). In some implementations,wherein a learning controller (e.g., 214 in FIG. 2A) may be configuredto communicate directly to the appliance, the instructions when executedby a processor may be configured to cause transmission of pulses of acarrier wave to the appliance. FIG. 16 presents an exemplary listing ofpulse codes for communicating commands to several selected appliancedevices. In some implementations, wherein a learning controller (e.g.,214 in FIG. 2A) may be configured to communicate directly to theappliance, the instructions when executed by a processor may beconfigured to cause transmission of pulses of a carrier wave to theappliance. FIG. 16 presents an exemplary listing of pulse codes forcommunicating commands to several selected appliance devices.

In some implementations, wherein a learning controller process (e.g.,214 in FIG. 2A) may be configured to communicate to an intermediatedevice, (e.g., home automation controller 362 and/or home automationapplication) the instructions when executed by a processor may beconfigured to cause transmission of a command to the automationcontroller 362 and/or home automation application.

At operation 1224 one or more sets of instructions provided at operation1224 and associated with the one or more tags may be stored in anon-volatile medium. In some implementations, the instructions may bestored in memory of a local learning controller apparatus (e.g., 210 inFIG. 2A, 320 in FIG. 3B, 410 in FIG. 4). In one or more implementations,the instructions may be stored in memory of a remote apparatus (e.g.,computerized device 404 and/or remote server 406 in FIG. 4).

FIG. 12C illustrates a method of operating a computerized applianceapparatus using the tag and the set of machine instructions, inaccordance with one or more implementations.

At operation 1242 an event tag may be associated with an action. In someimplementations, the tag-action association may be effectuated via aGUI, e.g., as described with respect to FIGS. 5A-5B. By way of anillustration, the tag 502 may be associated with power toggle operationfor a TV 552 and DVD 554 appliances.

At operation 1243 context in sensory input may be determined. In someimplementations, the context determination may be effectuated based onanalysis of a plurality of images, e.g., using functionality describedwith respect to FIG. 15 and/or FIGS. 17A-17D. In one or moreimplementations, the context determination may be configured based onanalysis of two or more signal modalities (e.g., video and audio, videoand RF, and/or other combinations) and/or two or more distincttransmissions of a given modality signal (e.g., RF transmission usingtwo distinct PR codes). Use of a second signal modality may enableremoval of false positives during context determination.

At operation 1244 a determination may be made as to whether anassociation between the context and the tag may exist. In someimplementations of the learning process configured based on use of aLUT, a row or a column element of the LUT corresponding to the contextmay be accessed in order to determine as to whether the given contexthas previously occurred. An entry (e.g., a cell) of the selectedrow/column LUT element may be accessed in order to determine as towhether the given tag has previously occurred for the selected context.

Responsive to the determination at operation 1244 that the associationmay exist, the method may proceed to operation 1246 wherein a setcomputer readable instructions corresponding to the tag may beretrieved. In some implementations, execution of instructions retrievedat operation 1246 may be configured to communicate a command to thecomputerized appliance apparatus.

At operation 1248 the command may be communicated to the apparatusthereby causing the apparatus to execute an action in accordance withthe context detected at operation 1243. In some implementations, theaction may comprise one or more actions described with respect to FIGS.2A, 3A-3D, 5A-7B, and/or other actions.

FIG. 13 illustrates provision of control instructions to an appliancedevice by a learning controller apparatus using mixed carrier operation,in accordance with one or more implementations. Operations of method1300 of FIG. 13 may be employed by, e.g., the learning controllerapparatus 210 of the system 200 shown in FIG. 2A. The control apparatusmay utilize methodology of method 1300 in order to operate one or morecomputerized appliance devices (e.g., a computerized HVAC,

At operation 1302 of method 1300 illustrated in FIG. 13 transmissions ofa first wireless carrier comprising a control instruction may bedetermined. In one or more implementations, the first carrier maycomprise IR, RF, visible light, pressure (e.g., sound) and/or othercarrier configured to communicate data to the learning. In someimplementations, the first carrier transmissions may be produced by awireless remote controller device, e.g., user handset device 202 of FIG.2A. The control instruction may be configured to communicate anindication of an action to be performed by the appliance device (e.g.,POWER ON OFF for the fan 220 of FIG. 2A and/or OPEN CLOSE drawer by thenight stand 720 in FIG. 7A).

At operation 1304 context corresponding to the transmissions describedwith respect to operation 1302 may be determined. In one or moreimplementations, the context may be determined based on analysis ofsensory input, e.g., the input described above with respect to FIGS.11A, 11B, 12A. The context may comprise user gesture, posture change,user voice command, opening of a book by the user, daytime, and/or othercharacteristic of environment associated with the appliance

At operation 1306 an association between the context and the respectiveremote control instruction determined at operation 1302 may bedeveloped. In some implementations, the association may be producedbased on one or more LUT characterizing the relationship between thecontext (e.g., user rising the right hand) and control signal (e.g., RFcode corresponding to POWER ON) obtained by the learning controllerduring training. In one or more implementations, the associations maycomprise a trained configuration of a network of artificial neuronsconfigured to implement an adaptive predictor and/or combiner of thecontrol system described, e.g., in U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/842,530 entitled “ADAPTIVE PREDICTOR APPARATUS AND METHODS”, filedMar. 15, 2013; and Ser. No. 13/842,562 entitled “ADAPTIVE PREDICTORAPPARATUS AND METHODS FOR ROBOTIC CONTROL”, filed Mar. 15, 2013, each ofthe foregoing previously incorporated herein by reference in theirentirety supra.

At operation 1308, based on the association developed at operation 1306and on detecting the context occurring at operation 1304, a secondtransmission of a second wireless carrier may be automatically produced.Second carrier transmissions may comprise IR, RF (e.g., configured usingDirect Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS), and/or frequency hopping spreadspectrum” (FHSS)), pressure, and/or other technology may be utilized.The second transmission may be configured communicate one or moreinstructions to the appliance apparatus, (e.g., the fan 220 in FIG. 2A,and/or the night stand 720 in FIG. 7B. The instructions may beconfigured to cause the appliance apparatus to perform the actionassociated with the control instruction described above with respect tooperation 1302.

FIG. 14 illustrates provision of control instructions to an appliancedevice by a learning controller based on an action by a user, inaccordance with one or more implementations. The method 1400 describedwith respect to FIG. 14 may be utilized by e.g., computerized systems200, 350, 400, 630, 730, 830, 900 described above with respect to FIGS.2A, 3D, 4, 6B, 7B. 8B, 9, respectively.

At operation 1402 of method 1400 sensory input may be analyzed. In oneor more implementations, the sensory input may comprise output of avideo camera, audio, electromagnetic, pressure wave sensor array, acombination thereof, and/or other data (e.g., time of day/week/year,motion parameters provided by, e.g., an inertial measurement component.In one or more implementations the sensory input may be provided by asensor module of the learning controller (e.g., 212 in FIG. 2A) and maycomprise a stream of pixel values associated with one or more digitalimages. In one or more implementations of e.g., video, radar,sonography, x-ray, magnetic resonance imaging, and/or other types ofsensing, the input may comprise electromagnetic waves (e.g., visiblelight, IR, UV, and/or other types of electromagnetic waves) entering animaging sensor array. In some implementations, the imaging sensor arraymay comprise one or more of artificial RGCs, a CCD, an APS, and/or othersensors. The input signal may comprise a sequence of images and/or imageframes. The sequence of images and/or image frame may be received from aCCD camera via a receiver apparatus and/or downloaded from a file. Theimage may comprise a two-dimensional matrix of RGB values refreshed at a25 Hz frame rate. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the artsthat the above image parameters are merely exemplary, and many otherimage representations (e.g., bitmap, CMYK, HSV, HSL, grayscale, and/orother representations) and/or frame rates are equally useful with thepresent disclosure.

At operation 1404 a user action may be determined. In someimplementations, the user action may comprise a gesture, a posturechange, a voice command, an eye movement, an audible indication,activation of a remote control device (e.g., and/or other 202, 320 inFIGS. 2A, 3B), and/or other indications that may be related to a contextassociated with a task execution by a robot may be determined. In someimplementations, user action determination may be configured usinginformation related to user location, number of users, theircharacteristics (e.g., age, sex, height). User action determination maybe based on analysis of sensory input described with respect tooperation 1402. In some implementations of video sensor data, thesensory input analysis may comprise operations described with respect toFIGS. 15, 17A-17D.

At operation 1406 a determination may be made as to whether the actiondetermined at operation 1404 has previously occurred and an associationexists for the user action. The association may comprise a relationshipbetween the user action and one or more control instructions configuredto cause the computerized appliance to execute an operation (e.g., turnon/off, open close). In one or more implementations, determination as towhether the association exists may be based on an analysis of a LUTconfigured to store associations between the action and thecorresponding control instruction. In some implementations of thelearning process configured based on use of a LUT, a row or a columnelement of the LUT corresponding to the user action may be accessed inorder to determine as to whether the given action has previouslyoccurred. An entry (e.g., a cell) of the selected row/column LUT elementmay be accessed in order to determine as to whether one or more controlinstructions have been previously associated with the given action.

Responsive to determination at operation 1406 that the association mayexist, the method 1400 may proceed to operation 1408 wherein one or morecontrol instructions associated with the user action may be retrieved.In some implementations, wherein protocol specification of the controlcommunication between the user handset (e.g., 202 in FIG. 2A) and theappliance (e.g., 220 in FIG. 2A) may be available to the learningcontroller (e.g., 210 in FIG. 2A), the control instructions may beconfigured using the protocol specification (e.g., command pulse codeillustrated in FIG. 16). In some implementations, wherein protocolspecification of the control communication between the handset and theappliance device may be unavailable to the learning controller, thecontrol instructions may be configured using a playback of user commandtransmission portions associated with a given user action (e.g., IRremote transmission to cause the robot to mute the TV), e.g., asdescribed in detail in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/244,888entitled “LEARNING APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR CONTROL OF ROBOTIC DEVICESVIA SPOOFING”, filed Apr. 3, 2014; Ser. No. 14/244,892 entitled“SPOOFING REMOTE CONTROL APPARATUS AND METHODS”, filed Apr. 3, 2014; andSer. No. 14/244,890 entitled “APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR REMOTELYCONTROLLING ROBOTIC DEVICES”, filed Apr. 3, 2014, each of the foregoingpreviously incorporated herein by reference in their entirety supra.

At operation 1410 the one or more control instructions determined atoperation 1408 may be automatically provided to the appliance therebyenabling execution of the operations (e.g., closing the drawer by thenight stand 620 in FIG. 6B).

FIG. 15 illustrates a method of determining context in sensory input alearning apparatus, in accordance with one or more implementations.Methodology illustrated and described with respect to FIG. 15 may beemployed for analyzing output of a video sensor (e.g., 212 in FIG. 2A,camera of the device 332 and/or camera 920 of FIG. 9). Images oforiginal video may be down sampled in spatial domain and/or temporaldomain form, e.g., 1280×720 pixels at 30 fps down to 80×60 pixels at 10fps. In some implementations, context methodology may be utilized withdata provided by a radar, sonography, x-ray, magnetic resonance imaging,and/or other types of sensing, utilizing various types of waves (e.g.,visible light, infrared (IR), ultraviolet (UV), and/or other types ofelectromagnetic waves, pressure, radio frequency). Methodology of FIG.15 may be employed by a variety of devices, e.g., learning controller210, 240 of FIGS. 2A-2B, apparatus 310, 320, 410, 406 of FIGS. 3A-4,apparatus 610, 640, 710, 740, 810, 840, 910, 1000 of FIGS. 6A-10.

At operation 1502 reference instance I₀ of sensory input may beobtained. In some implementations, the reference instance may comprisean initial image (e.g., shown in FIG. 17A) of premises associated withtask execution (e.g., image of a room comprising the TV 916 of FIG. 9).In one or more implementations, the reference image may comprise outputof a low pass filter of image sequence {I(1) . . . I(n−1)} configured asfollows:I ₀ =Σa _(i) I(n−i−1)  (Eqn. 1)where a_(i) denote filter coefficients. In some implementations, thefilter of Eqn. 1 may comprise an exponential filter with half-life decaywindow selected between 1 and 10 second for image sequence refreshed at10 fps.

At operation 1504 Obtain current instance of sensory input I(n) may beobtained. In some implementations wherein camera sensor may comprise ageneral purpose camera (e.g., embodies in a smartphone 310 of FIG. 3A)the original image [provided by the camera may be down sampled fromcamera resolution (e.g., 1900×1280 or 1280×720 pixels) to 80×60 pixels.In one or more wherein the camera sensor may be configured for featuredetection application (e.g., embodied in apparatus 610 and/or 810) theoriginal image may be provided by the camera at target resolution (e.g.,80×60 pixels).

At operation 1506 a discrepancy map between the currents instance ofsensory input and the reference instance may be determined. In someimplementations of image analysis, the discrepancy map I_(r) may beconfigured based on a pixel-wise difference of the current image and thereference image I0 as follows:I _(r)(n)=I(n)−I ₀  (Eqn. 2)

At operation 1508 most relevant (also referred to as salient) featuremay be determined based on an analysis of the discrepancy map. In someimplementations, the discrepancy map analysis may comprise clusteranalysis (e.g., comprising thresholding and determination of largestcontiguous (in pixel space) portion and/or portion with the greatestcumulative pixel value, and/or other techniques). The discrepancy mapanalysis may comprise a winner takes all (WTA) evaluation wherein asingle portion may be selected (e.g., the largest area). In someimplementations, the discrepancy map analysis may comprise a signalrange squashing operation (e.g., based on a sigmoid, arctangent, and/orother operation configured to transform wide range input into a boundedrange output). In some implementations, the discrepancy analysis maycomprise a soft-max operation expressed as:F=max(S(I _(r)(n))).  (Eqn. 3)wherein F denotes feature output, and S denotes a sigmoid operation.

At operation 1510 a hash representation of the map representing therelevant feature may be determined. In one or more implementations, thehash representation may be determined based on size, location, and/orenergy content of the detected relevant feature. Hashing of featurerepresentations may enable more economical storage and/or fasterretrieval of features during training and/or operation of the learningprocess.

At operation 1512, hash representation may be stored, in. e.g., memoryof the learning controller (e.g., 1012, 1014 in FIG. 10) and/or in acloud depository (e.g., 406 in FIG. 4).

FIGS. 17A-17D illustrates context detection using an image sequence inaccordance with one or more implementations.

Various image sources may be utilized with the context detectionmethodology described herein such as digital images comprising pluralityof pixels provided by a video camera (e.g., 212 in FIG. 2A), radar,sonography, x-ray, magnetic resonance imaging, and/or other types ofsensing, the input may comprise electromagnetic waves (e.g., visiblelight, infrared (IR), ultraviolet (UV), and/or other types ofelectromagnetic waves) entering an imaging sensor array. In someimplementations, the imaging sensor array may comprise one or more ofartificial retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), a charge coupled device (CCD),an active-pixel sensor (APS), and/or other sensors. The sequence ofimages and/or image frame may be received from a CCD camera via areceiver apparatus and/or downloaded from a file. The image may comprisea two-dimensional matrix of red green, blue (RGB) values refreshed at a25 Hz frame rate (and/or any suitable frame rate). It will beappreciated by those skilled in the arts that the above image parametersare merely exemplary, and many other image representations (e.g.,bitmap. CMYK. HSV, HSL, grayscale, and/or other representations) and/orframe rates may be equally useful with the present disclosure. Originalimages provided by a video camera (e.g., 602 in FIG. 6A and/or 920 inFIG. 9) may be cropped (by e.g., 1-20%) to allow for view fieldtranslation/rotation, edge artifact removal, and/or other editingoperations. Images of original video may be down sampled in spatialdomain and/or temporal domain form, e.g., 1280×720 pixels at 30 fps downto 80×60 pixels at 10 fps.

A reference image may be selected for use by the context detectionprocess. In some implementations, the learning process may be configuredto periodically acquire a reference image of the environment. FIG. 17Aillustrates an exemplary reference image comprising representations ofuser hands 1702, 1704.

In one or more implementations, the reference image I0 may be determinedbased on an output of a high pass filter of the image sequence. Thefilter may comprise an exponential filter operation characterized bydecay half life time window selected between 1 and 10 seconds. FIG. 17Billustrates an exemplary reference image determined based on an outputof a high pass filter of a sequence of images comprising static (notchanging within a given interval) representations (e.g., of user hands).As shown in FIG. 17B, high frequency content of static input comprisesrandom noise component depicted by black 1712 and white 1714 blocks.

During operation of context detection process, a given image may becompared to the reference image in order to determine the context basedon changes in sensory input.

FIG. 17C illustrates output of change detection process (e.g., describedby Eqn. 2-Eqn. 1) obtained based on a gradual motion (e.g., on atime-scale of the filter decay) of an object (e.g., user hand 1704 inFIG. 17A) from location A to location C along direction denoted by arrow1728. User hand representation 1724 at location C may correspond topresent time (t). User hand representation 1720 at location A maycorrespond to a prior time instance t-dt. User hand representation 1722at location B may correspond to an intermediate time instance t-dt<tb<t.Data in FIG. 17C may be encoded using grayscale representation, whereingreater pixel values may be correspond to darker shades (e.g., maximumvalue of one may correspond to black), while lower pixel values may becorrespond to lighter shades of gray (e.g., value of negative onecorresponding to white). As shown in FIG. 17C, due to exponential decay(forgetting) of effects of prior inputs on current output,representation 1724 may comprise darker shape compared to handrepresentations at prior time instances (e.g., 1722, 1720). Detection ofa ‘ghosted’ pattern of hand representations 1720, 1722, 1724 associatedwith gradual user hand motion may trigger context detection outputindicative of first user gesture (e.g., ‘sweep’).

FIG. 17D illustrates output of change detection process (e.g., describedby Eqn. 2 and fixed reference image of e.g., FIG. 17A Eqn. 1) obtainedbased on a sudden (e.g., on a time-scale of the filter decay) motion ofan object (e.g., user hand 1702 in FIG. 17A) from location E to locationF. Pixel encoding in FIG. 17D may be configured in accordance with themethodology described with respect to FIG. 17C.

As shown in FIG. 17D, pixels of representation 1732 corresponding toprior location of the hand may be characterized by lower relativeaverage (e.g., negative) values creating a “mirror” image of the hand.Pixels corresponding to current location of the hand may becharacterized by greater relative average (e.g., positive) valuescreating a true image of the hand. The pattern of representations 1732,1734 of user hand motion may trigger context detection output indicativeof a second user gesture (e.g., ‘shake’).

Context detection methodology shown described with respect to FIGS.17A-17D may enable context detection that may be sensitive to temporalchanges as well as spatial location of the changes. A gesture at a firstlocation may be associated with one action, while the same gestureoccurring at another location may be associated with another (differentin some implementations) action. In some implementations, the contextdetection methodology of the disclosure may be configured to performfunctions of a location sensor by detecting positions of interestingevents, (e.g., movement), and associates different positions withdifferent actions.

In one or more implementations, data from two or more sensor types maybe combined (e.g., via an adaptive data fusion process). By way of anillustration, false positive of features detected using video, may befiltered out using audio, proximity, and/or other signal provided inorder to disambiguate context detection.

The methodology described herein may advantageously enable automaticoperation of computerized appliances a trained controller apparatus. Thelearning controller may automatically trigger an action execution by theappliance based on detecting a context that may have been associatedwith the action during training. In one or more implementations, theaction execution may be effectuated based on provision of one or morecontrol instructions to the appliance and/or to an intermediary devicein data communication with the appliance.

Use of computerized controllers to automatically operate appliances mayobviate need to users to perform mundane tasks (e.g., closing ofdoors/windows in bad weather), configuring home entertainment system inaccordance with detected audience (e.g., based on age, sex, and/or othercharacteristics), allow users to perform other tasks withoutinterruptions (e.g., automatic TV muting may enable the user to verifycaller ID and answer a phone call before it goes to voice mail). Use oftraining, may enable users to operate home appliances by using gestures,posture, location, sounds, instead of and/or in addition to remotecontrol devices provided by manufacturers. Use of computerizedcontrollers for robot operation may afford users with addedfunctionality that may not have been available otherwise.

In some implementations, a given learning controller (e.g., 210 in FIG.2A) may be employed to operate a variety of computerized appliancesand/or robotic devices. By way of an illustration, a learning controllerconfigured to operate a computerized fan (e.g., 220 in FIG. 2A) maydetect presence of another appliance and/or robotic device (e.g., arobotic vacuum cleaner, a night stand 640 in FIG. 6A). The learningcontroller may be configured to communicate with a depository oflearning configurations (“controller brains”) and automatically downloadsoftware components, e.g., drivers, learned associations 104,communication protocol (e.g., to enable transmissions 636), and/or othercomponents that may be required to operate the newly detected device(e.g., 620). In some implementations, a learning controller may be movedfrom one location to another (e.g., from one room to another room, orwithin the same room). Based on an analysis of sensory input (e.g., itsown position, presence and/or position of objects) the controllerlearning process may be configured to determine if a previouslydeveloped learning configuration for the new location may exist. Basedon determination that previously developed learning configuration forthe new location exists, the learning controller may download theconfiguration thereby enabling operation in the new location withoutadditional training.

Multiple learning controllers may be configured to operate a givencomputerized appliance and/or robotic device. In one or moreimplementations, multiple learning controllers may be disposed indifferent rooms of a house. The learning controller disposed in a givenroom may provide control instructions to a robotic appliance (e.g.,vacuum cleaner) operating in that room. When a robotic appliance (e.g.,vacuum cleaner) moves to another room, another learning controllerdisposed in that other room may take over the control operations of theappliance. In some implementations, two or more learning controllers maycooperate when operating a given appliance (e.g., the vacuum cleaner).By way of an illustration, one learning controller may collect andprocess sensory data, while another learning controller may communicatecommands to the appliance, one controller may provide processingresources to another controller while processing sensory input (e.g.,video). Various other configurations may be employed (e.g., onecontroller processing video while another controller processing audiosensory data).

In some implementations of a learning controller embodied in a portableuser interface device (e.g., 710/740 of FIGS. 7A/7B) one user mayutilize her/his smartphone operating one instance of the learningcontroller process to operate an appliance. Another user may employhis/her smartphone/tablet computer to operate the same appliance usinganother instance of the learning process. Individual instances of thelearning process may be tailored to user-specific configuration, e.g.,user gestures, body size, complexion, hair color/style, contentinterests (e.g., when operating entertainment appliances), and/or othercharacteristics.

The methodology described herein may be applicable to perform operationswith a variety of household, office, industrial and/or other appliancesand/or robotic devices. Various tasks may be executed using trainedcontrollers described herein, including, e.g., cleaning, objectremoval/sorting/rearrangement, content recording/playback, premisessecurity, premises maintenance, and/or other tasks.

It will be recognized that while certain aspects of the technology aredescribed in terms of a specific sequence of steps of a method, thesedescriptions are only illustrative of the broader methods of thetechnology, and may be modified as required by the particularapplication. Certain steps may be rendered unnecessary or optional undercertain circumstances. Additionally, certain steps or functionality maybe added to the disclosed implementations, or the order of performanceof two or more steps permuted. All such variations are considered to beencompassed within the technology disclosed and claimed herein.

While the above detailed description has shown, described, and pointedout novel features of the technology as applied to variousimplementations, it will be understood that various omissions,substitutions, and changes in the form and details of the device orprocess illustrated may be made by those skilled in the art withoutdeparting from the disclosure. The foregoing description is of the bestmode presently contemplated of carrying out the technology. Thisdescription is in no way meant to be limiting, but rather should betaken as illustrative of the general principles of the technology. Thescope of the technology should be determined with reference to theclaims.

What is claimed:
 1. A home animation apparatus, comprising: a sensorinterface configured to receive one or more sensor inputs; a userinterface configured to receive one or more user indications; and aprocessing component in communication with the sensor interface and theuser interface, the processing component configured to: determine anaction by a user of the home animation apparatus based on analysis ofthe one or more sensor inputs; associate a context with the determinedaction by the user; and based on an occurrence of the one or more userindications being provided by the user contemporaneous with the actionby the user, assign an action tag, the action tag configured to enableprovision of a control instruction to a home appliance device when asubsequent user action associated with the context is detected.
 2. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein: the user interface comprises a touchactivated interface; and the one or more user indications comprise abutton touch of the touch activated interface by the user.
 3. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein: the user interface comprises a pressurewave sensing component; and the one or more user indications comprise anarbitrary voice phrase.
 4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein: the sensorinterface comprises a camera; the one or more sensor inputs comprise aplurality of images provided by the camera; and the action by the usercomprises a gesture that is determined by the processing component basedon an analysis of at least one image of the plurality of images.
 5. Theapparatus of claim 1, further comprising: a data interface to acontroller apparatus in data communication with the home appliancedevice; wherein the controller apparatus is configured to, based on areceipt of the action tag, execute a program code, the execution of theprogram code configured to cause the provision of the controlinstruction to the home appliance device.
 6. The apparatus of claim 5,wherein the program code is configured based on a user input via acomputerized input interface.
 7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein: thecontrol instruction is configured to cause the home appliance device toexecute an action; and the subsequent detection of the user actionassociated with the context is configured to cause an automaticprovision of the action tag to the controller apparatus via the datainterface.
 8. A method of operating a home automation controller of acomputerized appliance, the method comprising: interfacing to acomputerized appliance; analyzing one or more sensor inputs; determiningan action of a first user based on the analysis of the one or moresensor inputs, the determining of the action being associated with acontext; and based on an existing association between the contextassociated with the determined action of the first user and a command,automatically providing the command to a fixture upon detecting of thecontext; wherein the existing association between the action of thefirst user and the command is a result of developing a new associationbetween the context associated with the action of the first user and thecommand, the command being received from another user while the firstuser performs the action at the same time during the developing of thenew association.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein: the determining ofthe action of the first user comprises determining an opening of a bookby the first user; and the command is configured to turn on the fixture.10. The method of claim 8, wherein the fixture comprises a light fixturedisposed remote from the home automation controller.
 11. The method ofclaim 10, further comprising: remotely controlling the light fixture viaone or more signal carrier transmissions; wherein the interfacing to thecomputerized appliance comprises interfacing via a wireless interfaceconfigured to produce the one or more signal carrier transmissions. 12.The method of claim 11, wherein: the one or more sensor inputs comprisea sequence of images provided by a camera; and the analyzing of the oneor more sensor inputs comprises comparing at least two images of thesequence of images.
 13. A non-transitory computer-readable storageapparatus comprising a plurality of instructions configured to, whenexecuted by a processor apparatus, cause a computerized home animationapparatus to: analyze a plurality of sensory inputs; determine a useraction, the determination of the user action being associated with theanalysis of the plurality of sensory inputs; associate a context withthe determined user action; assign a composite action tag based on anexisting correlation between the context associated with the user actionand a separate user command, the assigned composite action tag beingconfigured to provide a control instruction; and when a subsequent useraction associated with the context is detected without the separate usercommand, automatically provide the control instruction to a homeappliance via the assigned composite action tag; wherein the existingcorrelation between the user action and the separate user command hasbeen created as a result of a plurality of training sessions, theplurality of training sessions comprising: a first training sessioncomprising an association between (i) a first determination of the useraction and (ii) a first detection of the separate user command; and asecond training session comprising an association between (i) a seconddetermination of the user action and (ii) a second detection of theseparate user command.
 14. The non-transitory computer-readable storageapparatus of claim 13, wherein: a user interface is configured toreceive the user command by touch; and the user command comprises aphysical activation of the user interface by a user.
 15. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage apparatus of claim 14, wherein:a camera is configured to receive the plurality of sensory inputs, theplurality of sensory inputs being a plurality of images captured by thecamera; and the user action comprises a gesture detectable based on ananalysis of at least image one of the plurality of images.
 16. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage apparatus of claim 13, wherein:a user interface is configured to receive the user command by pressurewave; and the user command comprises an arbitrary voice phrase.
 17. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage apparatus of claim 13, whereinthe subsequent user action comprises a user input via a computerizedinput interface.
 18. The non-transitory computer-readable storageapparatus of claim 13, wherein the control instruction is configured tocause the home appliance to execute an action.
 19. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage apparatus of claim 13, wherein: thedetermination of the user action comprises a determination that a useropened a book; and the user command is configured to activate the homeappliance.
 20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage apparatus ofclaim 13, wherein the home appliance comprises a light fixture disposedremotely from the home animation apparatus.
 21. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage apparatus of claim 20, wherein the lightfixture is configured to be remotely controlled via one or more signalcarrier transmissions via a wireless interface.